Gigabyte P34G

Precision digital scale, in lbs.oz and grams for both stock P34G (128gb msata with 1tb hdd), no customizations, and the entire power brick.

I used a bowl to offset the scale (to set as new zero value) so that I could see the LCD display. If the bowl is removed, the scale would show a negative -220 grams due to the offset.

In conclusion:

1746 g or 3lbs, 13.6 oz for the P34G by itself
2265 g or 4 lbs, 15.9 oz for the P34G with power brick + cables.

Edit:

The display shows " mL", however it's in grams, confirmed.

 

Sure, here you go.

 

I always have this problem. Seems like any action even opening a new page in browser leads to fan ramping up.

 

The 'stealth mode' option for smart fan only seems to stop the fans getting very loud (i.e. ultra boost), such as whilst playing games, but you would want them to be in order to keep cool. Hopefully there will be some kind of update so that 'stealth mode' can keep the fans down whilst doing lesser tasks. I believe I used the same example of when opening new tabs the fans get louder, noticeable but not unbearable.

 

It's a good idea to have flash and java off if you are just browsing the web on battery, saves you a ton.

 

+1 on Flash. I use FlashControl in Chrome and it makes a big difference..

 

Okay, I'm ten pages into thread and haven't seen anything yet, so...

Anyone running Windows 7 on this machine (P34G)? I have a critical work application that does not work with Windows 8. I see that multiple resellers offer to configure with Windows 7, but I'm a wee bit worried about driver issues.

Thanks.

 

I am planning to format C and install win 7 (and possible winXP) instead win 8. Even the fact that I need to create a Microsoft account outraged me to hell.

 

Set Windows 7 defaults in BIOS or run the app under Win8 and set compatibility to Win 7.

 

Be sure to backup that recovery partition in your hardrive, before you do that.
Personally I'm getting used to windows 8, and I'm enjoying the speed and free ram that comes with it. Better adjust now than never.

 

Did anyone try to recover system from recovery partition?

 

Type a non sensical password in 5 time and it offers to skip it. It's stupid but it works.

 

You do not have to create a Microsoft account, you just choose to use "local account" at the bottom of the page when it asks you to create a Microsoft Account. I never create one.

 

I have not, but I have resized the recovery partition to pick up an extra 5GB on the C: drive, boot partition and have hit F9 at bootup to go in there and make sure everything was, is working as should and it was.

 

Battery test:
Undervolted to -100mV on CPU/GPU through Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
Disabled wifi and bluetooth
Disabled sound
20% brightness
Ran Super Street Fighter IV: AE with 1080p on MAX settings with INK post-processing from full battery on cold boot
Ran CPU VS CPU battles

After about 1 hour, 25 min, the machine was powered down/sleep/hibernate with a 5% battery remaining indicator on bootup.

I was away from my desk for about 15 min, so roughly a little over an hour for sure.

 

Is 20% a favorable brightness?

 

I find myself using 30% - 20% during the day, 20% - 0% at night. I wish there were more settings for the backlit keyboard, as it is usually brighter than I have the screen lol

 

I like 60-70%

 

20% is my sweet spot indoors during the day with the P34G. 0% during the evening/night.

My eyes are quite sensitive to monitor backlight though (and I have a glare/forgetting to blink issue). My triple monitor setups at home and at work are all 0% brightness, all the time.

Heck, I wear sunglasses while working, and at night sometimes. Cue the song...

I blame my CRT days.

 

First impressions, coming from a w230st:
- the thickness (or lack thereof) is AMAZING. I don't know what I was thinking ordering the w230st.. It's so fat.... so fat..
- build quality is good, packaging feels premium.
- backlight is better, not that I ever use it.
- screen appears less bright, but looks good.
- keyboard is nowhere near as good at the w230st. Thankfully I use an external keyboard most of the time
- will miss the home-pgup-pgdn-end row
- the preinstalled software is pretty great, actually, from the Smart Switch to the Smart Update.

All in all, I'm super glad I made the switch. Will upgrade to 16gb ram, 7260ac and IC diamond paste somewhere down the line, but I'm in no hurry

 

How is the speakers quality comparing to W230st?

 

Just an update since my previous review.

While I am not totally happy with the keyboard, I have adjusted to it and decided to keep this laptop.

Now that I have been using it for a few days for work and play I am pretty happy overall, despite my concerns. Those still exist, but I am willing to take a risk since there is nothing on the market that truly matches the performance and size, with the screen.

Surprisingly I have been getting 4-4.5 hours on battery without any major tweaks. I have not under volted. I I have the BT off as I do not need it and I have the power plan switch to power saver. The screen on battery is at 20% and it seems pretty good.

I can tell it is throttled when on battery, but that does not affect me since the apps I am generally using are my business apps (email, office, internet, Lync, etc.) and they all perform great.

I am hoping a third party comes out with a bit smaller of a power adapter for travel use. The one included is not bad, but still would like a more travel friendly for meetings.

 

Hasn't worked for anyone yet and the devs haven't had time to work on it. It's an hodgepodge of SQL, Java and C++ for data acquisition and supervisory control. Best if I can just go windows 7.



Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk now Free

 

They are certainly a little bitt louder than the w230st, but that doesn't exactly say much. Honestly I don't understand how the w230st speakers can be so bad. I've tried tampering with some settings and EQs, but the speakers on my cellphone still performs better.. I'd call the p34g speakers OK, but not good enough for quality gaming/video/music.

EDIT: I just noticed I have no bass in my headphones. I remember reading something about that. I tried unchecking "full range speakers" but no effect. gonna try uninstalling the drivers, unless anybody else has got a bright idea?

 

Windows 8.1 has working drivers with bassful sounds.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks, I didn't realize 8.1 had moved out of preview stage.

 

Can I ask how you adjusted the keyboard?

 

Good to know on the power scheme as I'll be hitting the road myself next Wednesday. I went with a Kensington Universal portable 120W power supply 33197 for travel and there's one up on eBay right now for $29.99. Amazon sells them for $80.

Yeah, keyboard takes some getting used to, but not the worst I've ever seen.

 

He said he "adjusted to it," However, I had a problem with repeating keys, went into the Keyboard icon in Control Panel and found Repeat Rate slider all the way to the far right. Turned it down to match the Repeat delay and my problem went away. Key depth is still a little shallow, even for chiclets, but the larger annoyance is the clicking noise they make when typing.

 

Gigabyte has all the drivers. I had it running fine, but I ended up going back to Windows 8. My company requires that I run PGP encryption on any physical drives, but it doesn't work on GPT drives and won't allow me to pass the security check. So I'm running Windows 8 Pro now and have VMs running.

 

Does anyone know what the graphic power variation setting in bios does?

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

 

it seems 1399 USD is the average price for this notebook.
can anyone find something cheaper?

 

Manufacturer has fixed the price with resellers.

 

If you pay cash/check, you can get 3% discount. That's the best deal you are going to get, especially since other countries pay much more than $1399. Even in Taiwan it costs more than that ($1500+).

 

in Norway, where I'm from, the base model is $1929, and the 16gb ram 256gb msata model is $2200.. Thankfully I'm in the states for a few months =) Still ended up paying about $1500 because of cali tax, though...

 

Afternoon all,

Thanks to all the contributors of this thread for the wonderful information over the past several months. Based on my own research and data/opinions you all have provided I decided to purchase a P34G which I received on Friday. I'm happy with the purchase so far and have no new things to add to the discussion. The speakers have no bass, the fans can get "loud" and the battery life is not the greatest (I got 3.5 hours doing regular surfing and productivity work (office) stock). From a "pro" perspective, nice build quality, good screen, keyboard doesn't get hot under load at all, processor and GPU are very nice, and there isn't a lot of bloat ware. Overall, this is exactly what I wanted and have been waiting for.

That said, the reason i'm posting is I have an odd problem. My Ethernet jack lights don't work. The port is live, just without the flashing lights. Is this true for anyone else? Is this a defect or setting i'm just ignorant of? Everything else is fine as far as I can see on the laptop and I don't think this is a big issue. However... any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sloth

 

Anybody come up with a good color profile yet? I've just done the built-in calibration in Windows 8.

 

I've been using the one from here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Alienware-14-Notebook.97648.0.html

It's the same panel as the p34g

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

 

Discover card's cashback bonus this quarter is 5% off up to 1500$ in purchases. So using 1400 of that will make the p34G cost about $1330.

 

What am I missing, where do I look to get color adjustments used?

 

Here's a link with screen shots to walk you through it.

 

im havin this weird issue. Apparently windows detected a problem with my ram. For the most part everything runs fine including games but every once in a while like once every 2 or 3 days i get a little blue message where windows runs into and error. The first time it happened the computer crashed. it does not do that anymore instead i get little blue messages. I ran a windows memory test which detected and issue and told me i should inform the manufacturer. Im not sure if its a real problem or not maybe i just need to replace the ram sticks. I just don't want to send it in for something that really doesn't affect my usage 95% of the time.

 

Try reseating the ram.

Run memtest86 to confirm.

Then either swap out the module yourself or report it as a tech issues.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

Hi,

I am owner of the Gigabyte u2442n. One thing that really annoys me is the constantly ramping up and down of thes fans. Even if I am only surfing, the fan turns on for about 3 seconds and off again. Does the P34G have the same characteristic?

 

Yes, it does.

 

Yep, even on "stealth" it does that.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

I tried to adjust the colors but I didn't get rid of the yellowish tint. Can you share which settings you changed please?
Thank you.

 

Gentech changed mine to Windows 7. Absolutely no issues.

 

+1.
Also, could you just use nvidia control panel and just turn up the blue a little bit?

 

Is it possible to connect 5.1 speakers with this laptop somehow?