Gigabyte Aero 14

Mine wobbles if typing with the laptop on my lap, but is fine if you work on a solid surface such as a desk. The propensity for screen wobble on soft surfaces comes from the fact that the screen is so deep, which give more leverage on the hinge.

 

Reposting my post about screen wobble. You can watch the video and see the wobble for yourself

I think one of the things that may turn people off is the loose screen hinge. Here is a video of me "flicking" the screen (basically lowering and then letting go all of a sudden) as well as from typing hard and then from bumping the table.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHZlhvS0RheXpsUGM

Also note that when you turn the laptop upside down, the screen "hangs" off. Below are pictures. One is what the laptop ought to look like when closed and the other is if i grab it by the body while the lid "hangs"

Closed: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHQnM1VUFxSlpvYkE
Hanging: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHdTFFWDZnNDNxN0k

 

I see a lot of posts raving about the aero14, but wanted to give my 2 cents to give the other side of the story.

I ended up returning my aero 14 and went back to my xps 15. Here is why:

1. Screen was just too damn wobbly. Had me seriously worried about the longevity of the hinges on this laptop. You can see the picture of what the lid looks like when you turn the laptop upside down.

2. The fan revving at low fan speeds. There's a post about this above - my fans would rev at very low fan speeds and moderate fan speeds, and the representative at Gigabyte told me his did the same and that he was "fine with it". In a quiet room with the fans spinning at moderate speeds, good luck staying sane. It drove me absolutely NUTS!!!

3. The impossibility to repaste this laptop. If any of you have tried opening this laptop, you'll know what I mean. It takes at least 20+ screws just to get to the CPU/GPU and the screws are TINY, meaning you can very easily drop a screw and lose it forever OR if you're trying to put the thing back together and drop a screw, you have a 80% chance of dropping the screw in a place you'd have to unscrew everything just to get out.

Plus, they even pasted the vram chips around the 970m, which makes for super annoying clean up/reapplying.

4. The temps. Before undervolting, my laptop got to around 94C on the CPU with fan setting on gaming mode. But I knew I could bring that down with undervolting and repasting. But what I couldn't get over was the fact that the SSD was heating up to about 40C. Never saw this happen in any other laptop.

5. Undervolting was the worst out of 4 6700HQ's I've used (3 XPS 15's and a 2016 razerblade). I couldn't even undervolt it to -100mv.

6. Keys were too stiff and the macro keys kept throwing me off. I would miss a lot of keystrokes because the keys demanded they be pressed all the way in, but they're way too stiff. And whenever I lifted my hands off the keyboard, I would always mistake the last macro key for the control key lol.

7. Ultimately, I'm going to use my laptop a lot more for productivity than gaming. For that reason, I wanted a bigger screen (trust me...14" vs 15.6" is like light and day) and a screen that would "wow" me to get excited about getting work done. The XPS 15 is that for me.

I managed to buy my XPS 15 for about $1400, so at that price point, the lesser 960m, but the greater 4k touch screen and much better build quality of the XPS seems like the better buy for me.

Hope this helps in buying the machine (or instills more fear of commitment )

-------------------------------------------------------
Forgot to mention this:

OH! forgot to mention a huge annoyance of the aero14:

The volume does not have different "memories" for earphone vs speaker. So if you were listening to something at 90% audio on speaker, it will keep the volume level at 90% for your earphones. If you unplug your earphones at 30%, the speakers will be at 30%.

 

NVME drives become more hot. Even up to 70c.

 

The Samsung nvme drive in my xps15 stays at a solid 30C. The SSD only heats up when the rest of the laptop heats up, not due to it working hard.

 

Thanks for your reply, my concern is exactly the same. As also the other owner confirms the hinges' issue, I am definetly out of the game. I'd rather have 100g more and a firm and solid laptop, I need a robust construction.

 

Its a pretty slow NVME drive that Dell uses. The same one as in my Alienware 15.

 

Yeah, after all the consideration, I've decided to stick with the Razer.
I -love- the features and positive aspects of the Aero, but this brings me back to the same issue I had with the XPS 15 when it was first released - it's too new, and there's a higher risk of getting a device that has quality control issues. Even more than that, it sounds like they need a little bit of time to iron out the wrinkles (like the screen wobble).

They keep stating that this laptop is being released in places like the UK to test the market, they didn't include TB3 because they want to see how people receive it first, and they're hoping to get feedback on the customers regarding the colours they chose so that they can adjust them and add some more for the next generation.

My interpretation is this: it's an awesome laptop that was designed with the best of intent - to get Gigabyte in the game without much risk. They had already set the bar low by focusing on the internals of the P34W, so the only way to go was "up". That being said, I think this laptop is a big stepping stone. If they're going to get a new laptop right, it'll be the next generation of this model, with Pascal, TB3, refinements made from this generation, and more widely well-received colours.

Just my personal opinion.

 

So, here is what happened...

I was trying to buy this and have it over-nighted for a trip that was coming up. It came into my position on Tuesday, but was bad. I paid 63 dollars for Shipping and Handling for the over night. Upon sending it back, Newegg would not refund my shipping and handling. Gigabyte did email me, 24 hours after I made my review on Newegg. I contacted Gigabyte back, immediately, but no response for another 24 hours. That happened again, I returned their response immediately and did not see another thing for 24 hours. That came into Friday, and then I realized, I was not taking a new laptop with me on this trip. Newegg gave me a refund, even though I asked for a replacement, and everyone I spoke with at Newegg did not seem to care one bit. I have moved on, I ended up buying a refurbed Alienware.

I really did want the Aero 14 though. Sad to think in the day of customer service, this happens. I do understand duds from time to time, but no one really cared to help.

Good Luck with your machines, I hope they work out better than my laptop did!

erikranger

 

Have anyone disassembled this machine to show the inside? I have a quite a fetish for stripping down laptops...
@triturbo

 

Never came across one and I'm not sure if it's officially imported in my country.

 

this looks like the perfect laptop for me and my overly due upgrade from my 2011 Clevo.

Does anyone know if this will be a Newegg Exclusive, or will other resellers be offering it too? Can't find it anywhere else yet.

 

My new XPS15 came with a toshiba topping out at about 2k+ read and 1.5k write. Still 30C

 

Didn't do a complete disassemble, but to simply try and repaste the machine required over a dozen screws, some of them so small and the holes so shallow that screws will not "sit" inside the hole, so you need to hold the screw upright the entire time. If you have fat fingers like mine, you can easily lose grip of a screw which can go underneath the fan, leading to having to unscrew everything again just to recover that said screw.

It is a nightmare underneath that machine....

 

How's the battery life in non-gaming scenarios? Does it live up to the hype?

 

pic?

 

opened, then closed and returned. No pics. Reason for return can be found few posts above

 

OH! forgot to mention a huge annoyance of the aero14:

The volume does not have different "memories" for earphone vs speaker. So if you were listening to something at 90% audio on speaker, it will keep the volume level at 90% for your earphones. If you unplug your earphones at 30%, the speakers will be at 30%.

 

rip

 

https://instagram.com/p/BH-EALZhCl6/

From linustechtips.

 

I'm planning to buy the Aero 14 whenever I can. No TB3 is a turn-off, but this is a PC for college, and it's light-years better than my ATI Radeon HD 5450 (yuck) that my current desktop has (and that I've dealt with for 5.5 years) so 4 years with a 970M shouldn't be a huge deal. The battery life for light use is what excites me the most.

 

DOnt forget the 970 is already 2 years old by now. It is getting outdated quickly.

 

I need this computer ASAP... like within a month. Which is sad, considering that it seems that the 10xxM will be much better. What sucks is my top two choices (ASUS Strix GL502 and Aero 14) both do not have TB3 support.

The Razer Blade is way too expensive to gain a fancy case, touchscreen, and TB3 support. I can't really think of any other thin&light, decent battery 970M laptops with TB3.

The 960M Dell XPS 15 is another option, but I really don't want to risk having to wait for a cheaper TB3 eGPU solution.

 

What about the MSI GS40?

 

Is it compatible with any sort of EGPU?

It looks good, and comparable to the Aero, but it has a 3-4 hour battery life under light use. (My second-place computer, the Strix GL502, has a 4-6 hour battery life under light use, but no Thunderbolt 3.)

 

Yep, some guy got to work the Razer core with the laptop's "superport". There's a small tutorial also that explains how to make that superport into a TB3, and then use the Razer core or compatible

 

Any other relatively portable gaming laptops that support TB3?

And where's the tutorial about using the superport for an EGPU?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gs40-phantom-001.782310/page-71#post-10282641

There you go

 

Considering that the "Superport" on the GS40 was not initially advertised as Thunderbolt, is there a possibility that the Aero has a "hidden" Thunderbolt capability?

 

No. I emailed Gigabyte to confirm.

 

Getting a bit more exotic... does it have an mPCIe slot (no, not a m.2 slot, an mPCIe as in a Wi-Fi adapter's mPCIe slot?) Those can sometimes be adapted as eGPUs (I wouldn't try this until the Aero is REALLY obsolete, haha.)

And if this isn't known, I don't want to put anybody's new PC in danger... don't rip it open and look because I wanted to know about a PCI slot .

 

Alienware 13" has Thunderbolt 3; also has a dedicated EGpu port and Amp that is a little more stable than DIY ones.

 

The 13 also has a low-voltage CPU, and still manages to have worse battery life than quite a few other similar sized gaming laptops if I have my facts right.

 

Even worse: It throttles

 

And no 970M

Is there any 14" 970M laptop that supports TB3? Best I found is the GS40, but I'm confused about the 6QE and the Phantom-001... is there even a difference? The 6QE is on MSI's website, but the Phantom-001 is on every site selling the laptop.

 

I got my Aero today. Few points...

- The screen wobble isn't as bad as I thought it would be, the rigidity of the hinge is comparable to other Gigabyte laptops(I also have p34w-v2). It wobbles a bit more cause there's nothing to hold the screen as you can extend it all the way flat.

- My machine has been silent when browsing / watching videos etc. Fans have only turned on when gaming. Temperatures have been good, however cores have peaked at 96c whilst playing Overwatch. During game play they sit around 77-80 I'm trying to pinpoint when the spike happens as it's a bit unusual.

- Keyboard is great to type on. Only nuisance is there is no light for caps lock.

Edit : Wobble on the screen is more noticeable when on lap and can be quite annoying.

 

It doesnt. I cools loads better than any gigabyte out there by a mile.

 

The 13, not the 15 that you have.

 

The 13 also doesnt. The temps sre grest on those machines.

 

Check NotebookCheck's review, AW 13 with a 2 core i7 and a 960M throttles when on full load - Got a "low voltage" GPU and a 2 core CPU, it's a lot thicker and still cannot manage temperatures in order to use the computer's full potential. Sucks.

 

Thankfully, the CPU does not display an erratic clock speed behavior. In the Cinebench R11.5 benchmarks (see screenshots), the Core i7-5500U operates at its maximum speeds of 2.9-3.0 GHz. Although, the CPU speed dropped briefly to the 2 GHz region during the 3D test of the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark, we did not encounter any actual throttling. However at full load, which will never occur during everyday usage (not even when playing games), the processor throttles down".

I just checked and saw this. While all gigabytw laptops are notoriously throttling machines. I actually owned one.

The 13 might be a bit thicker but its loads more quiet and the temperatures are more well controlled. But it is true it is a dual core machine.

But the fan noise really is much lower for any alienware out there compared to the thinner machines. You simply cant have both.

 

I'm not trying to make Gigabyte a god here, they do not handle cooling properly; and I don't really mind having a noisy laptop at all, that's what'll help me use the most potential of it. What I cannot stand is a low voltage CPU (15 Watt TDP vs.. 45W) still throttling when put in a "fat" body, which can host a much beefier cooling system than these "Less than 20MM quad core 970M laptops".


It's a matter of taste and compromises anyway, I rather having a noisy laptop with more juice inside than a fatter quieter and "weak" laptop, if both will throttle anyway.

P.S: I want to state and make quite clear that I wouldn't buy the Aero 14, it lacks some things I really want and appreciate in a Laptop (No RJ45? C'mon! Also I can compromise battery life in exchange of a 2,5'' drive)

 

AFAIK it comes with a USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

Yeah, it annoys me that Dell puts a low voltage CPU in a thick body, can't put a 970M in it, etc... pretty much every company is making thinner, more portable gaming laptops. And then there's Dell/Alienware.

 

Adapter? What on earth are we talking about, Apple? Just put the goddamned connector in the laptop..

 

At least, unlike Apple, they bundle all needed adapters .

 

In the NBC review it only throttled once in an extreme test. Only that specific model as well. The AW13 is not known for throttling.

 

Hey guys, anybody had luck installing a nvme or pcie ssd. Trying to install a samsung 950 pro which its read properly in Windows 10 but when I look for it via the bios, it can't be detect in either the pcie or nvme options. I tried cloning my drive which at the moment is standard sata transcend ssd (TS512GMTS800) to my samsung drive but still no luck on the bios or the windows boot manager.

Note: I have the latest bios installed FB06/F005
I purchased my aero at newegg.

 

Are you in RAID or NVME mode? It could be that the drivers haven't been installed for the controller method.

 

Currently only see AHCI and RAID as options. But i'm in AHCI mode. I have a few screenshots of my bios options and my windows settings.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B55R89EazB83WDFEUWx1am9NS0k

 

Do you have NVME drivers into your Windows 10 USB install? The only reason I can think of the drive not showing up in boot/windows install is that the right drivers haven't been installed on that drive for the mode it's being used for.