Fan noise difference between P35K, P35W, P35X (v3) ?

Does anyone know if there is a fan noise difference between these 3 models?
P35K (965m GTX)
P35W (970m GTX)
P35X (980m GTX)

 

No one knows?

 

You can find external reviews for gigabyte laptops on Notebookcheck.net. From what I've read the P35k is fairly quiet but the other 2 are loud. You can set the fan to a low speed but then you will lose in performance.

 

I had a P35w v3 which had to be returned and I replaced it with a P35x v3. I can confirm that P35x fan noise is dramatically louder than P35w under load (both are quiet at idle).

What's interesting is that the P35x is still much louder (fans spinning faster) than P35w even during CPU-only tasks when the GPU is idle. Since the CPUs are identical between the machines I think this just means that the fans are tuned to spin much faster under the same conditions and settings on the P35x than on the P35w. The "Low noise" fan setting on the X seems to be about the same as "High noise" on the W.

Unfortunately since there are only four settings, this means that on the X you have to choose between very quiet but heavily throttled, and extremely loud. There doesn't seem to be a way to fine-tune the fan settings to get a more moderate setting. Unless there is a way to do that, I would recommend the W over the X, as much as I am enjoying playing Thief in 3K.

 

How loud and hot was the p35w v3 under load?

 

This would explain the varying opinions about noise on the different models.
One thing which also interests me, is, how the fan behaviour is:

Do both fans always spin synchronously OR is mostly 1 fan active and the second only activates under load? (though wouldn't make much sense, as both are connected with the same heatpipes)

 

It's still pretty loud. I don't know in db, but my subjective impression was that the P35W sounds like a loud laptop and the P35X sounds like a screaming jet engine. I would be embarrassed to use either one under load in a library. The W sound was effectively blocked by my headphones, but the X breaks through.

 

We only recently started carrying the P34, P35, and P37 models, so I haven't been able to confirm this just yet. If they follow suite of how other Optimus systems work, then generally the GPU fan only spins when the GPU is initiated─otherwise the GPU fan would constantly be drawing power despite the load on the system, which would somewhat defeat Optimus' aim in being conservative.

Again, though: to be fair, I have yet to analyze the fan behavior.

 

@Prostar Computer
Yes, this makes sense. Meanwhile I believe it works that way too (2nd fan for GPU only activating under higher load, even though on the same heatpipe).

Btw. your short laptop reviews on youtube are great. Just the right length and the benchmark can easily compared with the results of your other videos.
The only thing I wished you'd do, is switch off the loud music of the benchmark. Then we could actually hear the fan noise under load. This would help so much more than all these written dB measurements from other review sites.

 

Thanks! It would probably be difficult to properly gauge the noise of the fans via the camcorders microphone. We chose to leave the music on specifically to mask the fan noise. I will pass that request along though and see what we do in future videos.