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

imagine that it would take some months for the new model to reach, its up to you basically if you want to wait that much

the x7 v1 owners know about all that, how they bought the 765m when the 860m was right around the corner. however it was only a month or 2 ago that they got the v2 out for the public meanwhile the 860m was out in Q1 or early Q2

 

Thanks for the response and correct me if I'm wrong, but the difference in performance between the 765m and 860m seems negligible compared to the difference between the 870m and 970m.
To be honest, I pulled the trigger on the X3 Plus but very seriously thinking of cancelling the order.
If the Firestrike score of the 970m, posted today, is any indication then it is difficult to justify paying for an 'enthusiast' or gaming priced laptop that uses the 870m instead of the 970m.

 

Has anyone in Australia gotten theirs yet or is it on preorder? Anyone get the 2560x1440 version? That version isn't available in the US yet for some reason

 

looks like MSY only sell the 13.3" (not 'plus' version) one.

 

Yes I'll test with IC Diamond since I want to know how the temperatures different than the stock thermal paste too.

Don't know, our pirce is the MSRP provided by Gigabyte.

 

The difference between the 765m and 860m is 20-30% I don't think that is negligible

If those benchies are true we shall more performance gains.

The problem is when will the new models be available? This v1 just came out now. If the speculation is true in October we will see the release of the 980m there is currently no info on the 970m release but we can infer that it should be close and given the x7 v2 release it will take some months in there for the update it may even come with broadwell chipd

 

My X3 Plus will be arriving today - I'll be happy to post some general thoughts and findings on it's performance. Is there any specific items people would like to have more info on? Let me know and I'll do my best to get that info posted up. Thanks!

 

Is anyone cross shopping the X3 Plus with the P34G V2? I gave it some thought and both laptops seem somewhat similar, with the nod in specs and design going to the X3. Shame they both use that giant power brick for such a small system.

 

I currently have the P34G V2 (CF4), but will be moving on to something else as soon as I can find a suitable replacement. Don't get me wrong, the P34G V2 is a good system, but my biggest issue with it is kind of a deal killer for me and that's the keyboard. One of the videos I saw for the X3 showed someone testing the keyboard. They stated in the video that it did not have much flex, but it appeared to flex plenty in the video.

 

It has a lot of flex. I'm using it now and am not impressed. Machines this expensive shouldn't have that problem. Flex is worst on the left side and center. It's pretty obvious but it didn't impede typing or anything. It's just ugly to see.

 

Xentar, can you see if you have any bright smudges on your screen? Easiest way to test is to load a predominantly white page (eg blank notebook file) and then look at your screen from a 45 degree angle from the left or right (not above or below). That is the clearest way of seeing if you have any "bright smudges" that I've worked out at least (I have one bright smudge the size of the mouse pointer, and one the size of a biro head)...

 

thank you i am so interested in its temperature test

MI 2S Tapatalk now Free

 

No smudges here. No backlight bleed or dead pixels either. Pretty nice screen. Just like the Razer Blade except matte.

 

double stress tests please

 

Sure, what test is that? Prime95 and something else? Probably won't get to it until tomorrow.

 

Here is the "bright smudge" in the lower right quadrant of the screen:

imgur: the simple image sharer
P.

 

Uhhh how bout the X3? All I see are reviews of the x3+. Any X3 owners out there? Thinking of the X3 since it might be cheaper with almost the same specs.

 

My wifi card must be bad or something. At home I had a couple drops, but was able to do a lot. At work I can't connect to any of the networks though. It's not the routers either because I have 3 other devices using it fine. Tried updating to the latest Intel drivers and still nada

 

Xentar, someone on the overclockers.co.uk forum was having a wifi issue too when they updated the wifi drivers. Did you update the wifi drivers before it stopped working, or not?

 

Anyone seen this review yet?

Gigabyte Aorus X3 Plus review - Gaming Laptop - TrustedReviews

Man, 98 degrees on the CPU, there's very little thermal room on this thing. Review mentioned that the keyboard keys did not feel incredibly solid, but no mention of keyboard flex.

 

Hi guys.

My own experience is you need to have a router AC wifi otherwise you will experienced these random drop.

I tried several new laptops with the intel AC (ASUS UX32, MSI GS60 Ghost pro, Gigabyte P34G V2 and now the Aorus X3+) and as soon I got an AC router it works like a charm.

I know it's a shame ..

 

Updated after. Made no difference.

 

I've had this exact wifi card on three laptops and never had a prob. I really think it's a defect card or a crappy antenna.

 

Hey Guys - ok, spent past 2 days with this machine and I've decided to send it back. Notes are below:

1) As Xentar mentioned above, I have had major issues with the wireless card. This is a big deal for me since I travel a lot and don't often have access to a wired connection. I've now seen this issue with my machine, Xentar's and the other person who reviewed this machine that posted in this thread last week. Sounds like it could be a manufacturing issue.
2) Screen is too small - yes, this is my own fault and not that of the machines. I've never had less than a 15.6", and personally, for me, this size doesn't work.
3) Not a fan of the glass track pad. Best way to describe it is that it's like the face of an iPhone. Didn't feel very intuitive to me, and you can only click at the extreme ends of the left or right buttons, not near the center.
4) Keyboard DOES have a lot of flex, especially near the outside edges. Doesn't affect typing, but is noticeable.
5) While the screen looks great, I now understand what so many have spoken about with the 4K screen and having to turn down resolution to play games. I really only played Warcraft to test this machine out, but in order to get good FPS, you need to scale back to 1080p. That then distorts the icons on screen and makes it look blurry.
6) *EDIT* - Thanks to Xentar for reminding me - speakers are not very good. Low quality sound (even lower than what you typicality expect from a laptop).

On the plus side - the fans were definitely tolerable, even at max settings. They really only kick into that high gear when the CPU or GPU gets to 90 degrees, then switch back to normal levels once they drop 5 degrees (I was using it with a cooling pad, mind you). Heat was certainly present, but unlike some other machines I've tried, it didn't bleed into the wrist area next to the trackpad and the keyboard only got marginally warm. Top of the machine near the screen and underside were toasty. (Played Warcraft for 2 hours straight and also played a bit of Batman).

Overall if you're ok with the ultra screen and scaling back games, ok with the small form factor and track pad, it is a great machine. Just not personally what I'm looking for. Just ordered the P35w V2 and will be giving that a look see.

 

How were your laptop speakers? Mine are pretty terrible. I feel like there's a driver missing or something. Otherwise they went through an awful lot of trouble to make some pretty cool looking speaker ports just to put crappy speakers in there lol. I played Skyrim a little and could barely hear the game over the fans.

 

Thanks for reminding me - the speakers were, well, terrible lol. At first I thought I had the volume set wrong on the machine, then I thought I had done something wrong in the game. Eventually realized they're just not good quality. Poor sound, ZERO bass (I know it's a laptop but still). Then I plugged in my headphones and was surprised when it wasn't that much better. Updated my last post based on your reminder

 

prime 95 and furmark

if it's the 7260ac it's probably compatibility+driver issue, go to your driver setting and set 2.4ghz from auto to 20mhz it may help a bit

 

Did that yesterday. It helped initially but eventually dropped again. I'll keep trying things.

 

Loving my x3 plus so far, a real monster in a tiny package. Wireless internet working fine and I certainly don't have an AC router. Speakers sound great to me. I like the touchpad and buttons but I can see that it would be down to preference.

I'm no serious gamer/tech head so you guys who may demand more from your machines and may scrutinise build quality more brutally (things like keyboard flex which is just not an issue in the slightest for me)

Although I would say that if you are looking for a quiet machine you are definitely looking at the wrong laptop, as when gaming and on auto fan it can really get quite loud. And if you need to prioritise quietness putting the laptop on "stealth" fan mode does a great job, but obviously throttles the CPU. That said it still runs excellent for my standards, I just noticed Fraps FPS is significantly affected on stealth mode.

 

I put up a review on the X3+ here: Gigabyte Aorus X3 Plus review - a beastly 13.9-inch gaming ultraportable

If you guys have any questions or additional tests you want, let me know. heibk201, I still owe you a stress test. Hopefully tonight I'll have a chance.

 

several things I feel should be noted

1. for elan trackpad, at least on my y50, I used the official driver that I got from asus. with that driver, my trackpad went from a budget grade crap to a quasi-MBP if not better. since you mentioned driver limitations I think you should give this a try
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

2. the letter box thing is a directX 11+intel gfx driver issue, currently there's no fix. the only solutions are either force a DX9 render path or just change resolutions

3. your 3Dmark scores are really on lower end of spectrum, as in really...when I OC'd my 860m +135 core +500 mem, fire strike score is 4132. the reason for that I think should be the same as nx500, either CPU or GPU must have throttled so much, so I guess one of them or both is not being fully utilized, something worth checking

4. have you tried undervolting the CPU (usually ~-70mV) in XTU? that usually helps with both thermal and power throttling

5. Iris pro at full load goes to about 35W of power, so I don't think it's any more efficient than a 740m

 

1. Cool, I'll try that one too. I tried a Sammy driver I use on other machines and I got a bsod bootloop. We'll see how this fares.
2. Yeah, it's been the same on all the 4k laptops I've messed with

3. It's probably the CPU throttle. That thing gets 90+ degrees way to fast. There are some fan settings that I haven't experimented with yet, so I might mess with those a little well.
4. Not yet
5.I don't know what the 870m throttles to on battery, but I assume it's over 35W given the battery life I saw. That's my homework today I guess. I only meant for low end gaming where a 740M would be sufficient. Like if I wanted to play red alert 3 on battery or something.

 

Thanks for the review Xentar, I think I am going to cancel my preorder, been sitting on the fence for a while. The LCD flickering when you poke the back of the lid doesn't sound good. I will wait for maxwell in a Gigabyte P34 or P35 unless something new is announced.

 

Uh just a question. I did saw a video on youtube poking the lid of Aorus and it is flickering. Would this cause a problem in the long run? Really liked the design of this laptop and I'm waiting for a Maxwell refresh before deciding to pull the trigger. It's just a letdown that there are too many flaws to the design even with such premium price. Hopefully it'll somehow get fixed in the future releases.

 

No idea as I've never had that issue before. It could be that mine was defective but it seems more like a design flaw to me. Would be nice if someone could repeat it.

If you take good care of it, I don't think it will affect anything long term. I've seen laptops with glass lids and they hold up pretty good. The only bad thing I can think of is the aluminum might be too thin, which might allow bending if abused. Bent lids will surely result in back light bleed, which is exactly what you were seeing in that video.

 

I tried that driver and got a bsod again. Something was up so I deleted the original driver and reinstalled it. Then I installed yours successfully. It works better but there's still no way to adjust the pointer speed. I then tried to install the Samsung ones I originally tried. Worked wonders! This improvement is just like the GS60 and other Elan crappads I've seen. It turns junk into something nice. There's still the damp finger issue but the only way to fix that is to add an oleophobic coating to it. I have some coating here but I'm afraid to try it and have the trackpad be less responsive.

Driver is here: http://goo.gl/Uwhgvj

My settings: scroll speed 4/5, DC 3/5, pointer speed 5/5, change one finger to release after lift. Then go into mouse settings and under the wheel tab, change the vertical lines to 1. Smooth as butter. If you don't have a free wheel toggle on your regular mouse, you might want to leave the scroll wheel at 2 and lower the scroll speed down a notch in Samsung's settings. It's not as smooth but will make scrolling with a regular mouse less slow.

 

Uhh will just wait for a Maxwell refresh with this one. Hopefully the next refresh includes a Intel Broadwell aswell. Anyway still no reviews for the X3? All I see are X3 plus reviews.

 

X3 and X3+ are basically the same just different screen (13.3" QHD vs 13.9" QHD+)

 

Dear Owners,

can you please give more feedback on the laptop? Couple of questions:
1) Did you enjoy it?
2) What is the build quality?
3) How is the keyboard? Is flex noticeable?

Would you recommend it?
As I understand you most of you have Intel 7260 card that has well known issues. Do you consider replacing it with Killer one?

Also, do you think that broadwell upgrade in 3-4 month will reduce heat and noise? I don't care about extra performance but high temperatures bothers me...

 

I'd like to see one especially the bezels. If it's not too big I might rather get an X3 since it'll be cheaper.

 

Here!
...............

 

The one on the left is not an x3

 

That's an X7 and the other is an X3 plus. Hopefully I can see one before the Maxwell refresh arrives lol

 

pretty good & honest review
AORUS X3 Plus - 3K Gaming Laptop - YouTube

so glad I took the leap