Gigabyte Aero 15x v8 review (upgraded)

I recently purchased a new Gigabyte Aero 15x v8 from Scorptec. Reasons for purchasing was that I needed a new work laptop that I could also use for occasional gaming.

This laptop ticked all the boxes, one of the biggest deciding factor for me was it's subtle design that doesn't look like an overly aggressive gaming laptop.

Spec highlights are:

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8750H (2.2GHz-4.1GHz)
15.6" Thin Bezel FHD 144Hz 1920x1080 IPS anti-glare display LCD
16GB DDR4 2666MHz (added additional 16GB 2666mhz for 32GB running in dual channel)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 GDDR5 8GB
2 x M.2 SSD slots (came with one 512gb, added additional 1TB Samsung Evo SSD)
Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) port
94.24Wh battery

When I first got this laptop home, the first thing I did was attempt to install Unbuntu 18.04 in dual boot for work.

I never actually got this working on this particular laptop (first laptop was later returned to the store, more details below). Unbuntu was constantly freezing even after disabling the nouveau drivers and installing the Nvidia drivers (which is a common issue).

After using this laptop for a few hours, I began to notice that the "S" key was not always responsive. I had to hit the key extra hard on the edge in order for it to register. It was enough of an issue for me to return it to Scorptec in Clayton, luckily they had another unit available in Rowville and they did a straight swap over for me as I had only purchased it less than 24 hours before.

This new unit has no issues whatsoever, Ubuntu installation was simple and I have tested all keys on the keyboard which are working flawlessly.

Overall I am extremely happy with this laptop, I can confidently say that it's the best gaming laptop in it's price range, after spending many days browsing and testing other laptops in store. The cost at the time was $2,899 if this is in your budget I highly recommend the Aero 15x as no other brands that I found online or tested in store could match it's combination of design, build quality and specs.

Pros
- Great build quality, feels solid
- Specs for the price (great value)
- Attractive subtle design
- 2 year warranty
- Ease of RAM and SSD upgrade
- Super slim design for such a high end laptop
- Huge battery with great battery life
- Screen is excellent, color clarity and 144hz refresh rate is amazing

Cons
- Fans can get a bit loud
- Matte finish on keyboard and body is a fingerprint/finger oils magnet, requires regular cleaning.
- Comes with a bit of bloatware, some is useful most is not. Software looks better after upgrading.
- Does not have a larger HDD like it's competitors, you should consider a 1-2TB additional drive

If anyone has any pre-purchase questions, please feel free to ask. There is not a lot of information online about running Ubuntu on this machine, happy to help if anyone needs advice.

As I mentioned before, I also upgraded this from a single 16gb RAM stick to two 16GB sticks, I also installed a second 1TB M.2 SSD, so if anyone wants more information on this process, please let me know.

 

What speeds does your stock SSD run at

 

Thanks for this - what is the make and part number of the existing 16GB stick and what did you get to upgrade to 32 GB? Where you able to find the exact same 16 GB stick? Many thanks.

 

Do we really need large HDD drives? If you run games off them, you will get slower load times in your games which suck. If you are using it for media/storage etc, you are better off using external drives, a NAS or otherwise imo (that way you can access it from other machines too, not just your laptop which is great!).

 

Not really, external drives eat up ports and add more inconveniences. NAS is great until you are limited by the link you are connected with (and with notebook you are generally wireless connected), and there is no such thing as too much storage.
ps: I add additional 2tb WD blue as storage drive on my 15x and I can install any games, records multitracks and run many VM from there. The 512GB I got is quite slow (Transcend)

 

what ram did you buy to go dual channel, as i live in Australia too, and having trouble finding a compatible ram, thanks. also i bought my laptop off scorptec aswell.