***Gigabyte P35X owner's lounge***

That would be my choice of paste too, based on reviews I've seen, interested to see what difference it makes during gaming & maybe even during a wprime1024 run (not as stringent as Prime95).

 

I'm not quite sure that I understand exactly what you meant, but I'm gaming on my 21:9 external monitor with an Alienware M11X r3 (i7 ULV, 540m) via DisplayPort, and the Nvidia settings indicates that the HDMI is connected with iGPU, and DP is with dGPU. Either way, you can use the external display just as you would with internal display, gaming or otherwise, same performance and what not.

Regards.

 

Updated my previous post. The power throttling is real. Temperatures seems to be another thing atm. I will probably do some extra stuff later on when free, for now I'll be disabling turboboost to monitor performance again.

 

Well, you managed to get a big boost in framerate by decreasing the thermal throttling, but as you say power throttling is happening more now because of the lower temperatures. There's still some work to be done on the temperatures though, like you say you have some thermal throttling still. Couldn't you use Intel XTU and Throttlestop to modify the power limits so you don't get power throttling? That would just leave you to sort the thermal throttling.

 

Forgot to setup throttlestop, only had XTU running for monitoring just to see paste performance. If I did everything at once, I wouldnt be able to find the problem right away. Power draw seems to have increased to 189W, more than rated on the adapter.

 

I've done the unthinkable. I accidentally dropped a USB cable from literally inches above the palm wrest and it has dented the lovely shiny black covering. It's such a small dent that you can hardly see it when standing up but as soon as you sit down and get close to the laptop it is there - looking like a tiny spec of dust that just won't go away - forever to aggravate my OCD

 

You can repair that with toothpaste if it's tiny scratch.

Regards.

 

How? That would be ideal! It is the very definition of tiny.

 

Just rub toothpaste on where the scratch is and then wipe it off with tissue or towel. Rinse and repeat (NOT literally).

Regards.

 

It's not working. I'll have to live with it. It's no bigger than a needle tip so I will have to learn to accept it. Pretend it's a speck of dust or something I guess. Ahhh... just my luck for this to happen so soon after buying it.

 

maybe one of these might do it? Car Scratch Removers | Consumer Reports

 

Billy Mays would have known what to use

 

Yes!

Or perhaps Cakefish needs to procure one of these puppies:

 

So what sort of thermal paste is everyone using? I've never done a re-paste before, but it seems that the p35x is easy enough to access.

Also, with your most recent indentation, is the case that delicate? Or just an unlucky strike? Should I look into a case/wrap?

 

Oh no sorry Cakefish! I bet I have mine like a month before I notice something like that haha. Actually, I think there is a really small scratch where I took off the Intel sticker lol. w/e, everything looks perfect without my glasses on

 

In terms of the keyboard semi-lumpishness, I got rid of them by taking off the keyboard and putting 2 very thin washers around the 2 middle screw sockets (not the two outside ones which are basically worthless lol). The keyboard has just a tad bit more flex, which is hardly noticeable unless you press hard, but other than that it is basically uniform and doesn't make me angry anymore haha. It definitely requires some tweaking in terms of the thickness of the washers, and getting a balance between flex and uniformity, because the unevenness is caused by the screws pulling down on those parts of the keyboard.

I've also been comparing the screen to other matte screens, and it actually seems that this screen is not 100% matte, but like 70% matte 30% glossy, because I can definitely see a partially-clear reflected image in the screen depending on the distance and brightness (of both the screen as well as the environment). My other laptop for example COMPLETELY blurs out any other reflections, and you can't tell a human being reflected from a pole being reflected. On this screen though, it seems to be only partially matte. Honestly, it's not that big a deal, and it's still wayyyy better than glossy, but I would like to know if anyone has used any kind of matte filters/screen protection filters on their screens before with any success? Is there some sort of matte finish you can apply? I want full matte haha.

On another note, I have been unable to disable the area of the touchpad where the buttons are. This is kinda annoying because sometimes clicking the left or right buttons on the trackpad (which is actually a clickpad and doesn't have designated surfaces for each button) causes the mouse to move. I have tried changing the drivers from Elan and using regedit to make it so that all of the more advanced touchpad options are available, but it seems as if they don't actually take effect. I want to use the "Smart Area" setting which allows you to disable any sector of the touchpad, and is actually very useful for customizing if you have fat hands and are always hitting like the left part of the touchpad on accident when typing, because it allows you to disable that. Anyways, if anyone has any ideas about how to fix this, or use some sort of 3rd party program, let me know that would be very helpful!

 

3k is honestly great. Dota 2 and looks way better on it. Also, I am using 150% scaling, which isn't too bad, along with some other add-ons that make the resolution very productive for daily use, and in terms of Crysis 3 and stuff, notching it down to 1080p works fine, and it actually still looks better than my 17" 1080p running crysis 3. Not by a lot by anymeans, but I was just looking very very closely in order to find any discrepences, and it seemed the the higher dpi of 1080 on a 15.6" vs 1080p on a 17" was actually more of a factor than using 1080p on a 3k screen, in terms of the crispness at least. IMO it's worth it, but you know, different strokes for different folks.

Oh and also, in terms of 3rd party programs like utorrent or vlc media player, you should check on in their properties the "disable scaling for high dpi," which makes it smaller but definitely usable, and not blurry.

 

Hope you are able to figure this out, keep us posted. Hate when that happens as in my case I never use laptop touchpads. Always connecting my usb wireless trackball mouse, even if I'm on a plane there is just enough space for it.

Is there not any way to disable the entire touchpad?

 

The build quality is quite nice, and it seems well made to me. That said, there are a very few minor kinks that annoyed me, but I fixed them. The keyboard for one, was a little uneven, but was easy to fix, and honestly everything else besides that has been great. The quality of the CD drive is rather poor, but I'm putting in a SSD there in a few days so I don't really care about the drive. It will DEFINITELY last more than 2 or 3 years, in terms of it's physical build. Spec wise, we'll have to see but it's likely going to be at the top of the mobile food chain for a while, and will remain in the top 10 for a year or two. It doesn't really matter though, as it's a great system and is incredibly powerful. I LOVE IT. If you have to have the best of the best though, in a few years of course you'll need an upgrade, but this is still be way better than most of the crap out there, even in five years.

If a macbook is 10/10 in terms of build quality, then this is probably like an 8 or 7, as is everything else in this world which isn't made by apple basically.

 

Yea you can disable the whole touchpad pretty easily, and even make it so that when you plug in an external mouse it disables it. I use it a lot in lecture though so I want to be able to use it efficiently and without as many mistakes as I'm making haha. I guess the same goes for the UK keyboard, I just gotta get used to these things! I can't tell you how many times I've written @ instead of " haha, but I'm finally beginning to retrain my brain!

 

Welp, someone beat me to the keyboard fix. Everyone should like that post for info.

Only problem with keyboard removal.. I dont know where to pull it off without risk of damage. First time dealing with a laptop like this where it isnt very clear.

 

Which post are you referring to?

 

Post 873 by Sandwhale

Edit: Looking closely, inner keyboard screws seemed pushed further inward.

First image shows one of two inner screws.


This is outer



Of course I dont know how to pop it out sadly.

 

Peel it out from the top. There are little clips on the upper part of the keyboard (where the F1 F2 etc keys are...) and then there are clips on the sides. The lower part is just a metal wedge so you have to start with the upper part.

 

@Sandwhale: Thanks. Makes it a lot easier...


As for DPC Latency that Cakefish had. ANY monitoring software EXCEPT Intel XTU will cause sound distortion on the laptop itself. I tested with HW Monitor, GPUz, Nvidia Inspector, MSI Afterburner, ect.


Temperatures: Plugged in idle is roughly 49-51C. Reminds me of the Clevo W230ST. Fan profile needs an upgrade for maybe 3-5 settings for better control.

 

I bet if you undervolted by -50mV you'd be able to get rid of thermal throttling completely.

 

I was thinking of doing that with some integrated graphics downclocking too like the w230st. Will update once I do some driver checks. Been having random Driver Power State Failures.


And great... laptop refused to turn on after BIOS update.

So apparently removing the backplate can be quite bad for your battery... I loosened one screw and power returned?

 

Wouldn't you lose a lot of performance in CPU intensive tasks?

 

Does any owner have Shadow of Mordor? If it isn't too much trouble, is it possible to benchmark its frame rate at the same settings found in the GS60 review here? MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE Review (Gold w/ GTX970m) | KitGuru

I am really split between getting this and the GS60 right now. Obviously the P35x is superior in terms of performance, but the quality of the keyboard on the GS60 is a serious factor for me as well. I would give so many internet hugs to whomever is able to provide a direct performance comparison with the GS60, so I know how big the difference really is

 

Here is the offending mark I accidentally made by dropping USB cable connector

Spoiler

 

Just put this sticker over it:

 

Come on Cakefish, don't obsess about such a tiny thing, surely it's gonna get loads more scratches as you transport it about the place, just think of it as extra character!

 

I got rid of mine (dammit! Now I want them back!). But I have got a Samsung SSD sticker that came with my my 850 Pro and I just realised I could purchase NFC sticker so that my newly updated Nexus 5 with Lollipop can utilise the Smart Lock functionality. Thanks for the idea! That will probably help to solve my OCD - stickers > dent/chip (nomatter how minuscule).

I know, I know - my old laptops before my Clevo got wear and wear marks/dents etc. too but my Clevo was a brute (can't see any on that one!) but my brain doesn't think logically like that. It is telling me - '£1800 and you have already marked it permanently!'

 

I can't see it lol.

And, stop fretting mon. You have a killer rig. I understand though. Even I'd be obsessing about these things (especially within the first week!)

 

Back in 2004 I had a laptop with an american keyboard (one of the old Acer Ferrari laptops, think it was around the 3000 series with ATI Radeon 9700ish graphics) and it took me awhile to get used to the @/" difference, of course the main problem for me was no £ symbol...

 

Tbh, the picture makes it look worse than it actually is. It is not pure white, as the picture would imply. It's the size of a speck of dust. But my brain says; £1800!

Moviemarketing thanks for the idea - I'm gonna buy an NFC sticker. The black one of these will do: http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nfc-sticker-tags-12-pack-a65lr

 

Likewise. Random blue screen with power state failure, then when rebooting the Nvidia GPU not present in device manager. Another reboot and it returns. Thought it was something linked to me connecting/disconnecting HDMI to external plasma, however last one was when using laptop on its own. Also seems unrelated to GPU driver version. Do you think this is hardware or software related?

 

I had that: run Command Prompt as administrator, then type in sfc/scannow. Windows will find and fix corrupted files. Seemed to work for me. Hopefully will work for you too.

 

You could change the language input setting to US keyboard, then you can have all the keys where they used to be. Of course this will not physically change the symbols on the keycaps.

Regards.

 

Uh-oh, as time goes by your laptop is gonna end up looking like the PC equivalent of those explorer's bikes when they do round the world trips or something!........... (one large sticker!)

 

Now that's when stickers would come in handy! ;-)

 

This showed up for me right after the last BIOS update. I also updated the Intel drivers (Off the web, was trying to fix the inability to add any custom resolutions in the intel software) and added a custom monitor INF. It would do it within a few minutes every boot, UNLESS I was on battery then it would never do it. So only when plugged in I would get the error. I am sure it wasn't anything physical.

Searched for a solution and tried driver removals and everything I could for hours. Finally gave up and did a complete reinstall so I'll see if that fixes it. Ever since I put in my new SSD's I lost the ability to use my recovery partition, even though it was there and fully intact, so I wanted to fix that too. I see Cakefish's solution now but didn't try that.

 

Great thread guys, keep it up! I'm on the fence when it comes to the P35X, just waiting for someone to review the 1080p version

As for scratches- what i usually do with minor scratches is I take a thin-tipped marker ( the ones you use to write on CDs) and just draw over the scratch, and a bit of the surrounding area, then I let it dry completely. Finally , using a dry paper towel, i rub the scratched area. This makes the marker gray instead of black and the scratch much less visible. And if you don like it you can always clean it wit some rubbing alcohol.

 

I´m fortunate enough to being sent a review sample, courtesy of Swedish Mysn. I will only get a couple of days with it so my testing will be limited.

My plan is to check framerates, temps etc for 3K max and try to find settings at 3K for min 30 fps and avg 60 fps. Also do a comparison for 1080P max. Time permitting I´ll test Shadow of Mordor, Planetside 2 and Battlefield 4. Maybe Diablo 3 just to see how it looks in 3K.

I´ll try to fit those settings in the test for Shadow of Mordor but no promises. Worst case I only have two nigths for testing and I´m up to 4*4 game tests allready, preferably an hour each, so something´s gotta give.

Planned delivery just got bumped from tomorrow to tuesday so this is one week away.

Regarding Shadowplay, I just download from here ShadowPlay PC Game Capture Software | GeForce | GeForce activate it before a game session and hit a hotkey when I want to save the last 20 minutes?

 

Righto, I'm covering the dot with this metallic NVIDIA sticker: NVIDIA GeForce GTX Metal Foil Custom Sticker 4 ur PC or LAPTOP Badge Logo | eBay

 

About the temperatures and Fans.
What I really do not understand from Gigabyte is why they do provide a sata changable slot for ODD and a HDD but no Module with a extra fan and maybe headpipe connected.
like the Lenovo one. I am not asking for a second graphics card but a extra fan would help a lot the thermal issues..
And if we are already there a extra batterymodule instead of ODD/HDD/FAN would be great for long sessions away from a power supply
Gigabyte is from my pov waisting a lot of potential there.

Just my 5 cents

 

Yeah there is a lot more they could do with that hot swappable drive, which you rarely see especially on thin notebooks.

I think its really nice to have but personally I have no use for an internal optical drive. I carry an external one anyway in my backpack so I really don't need two. Also I prefer the extra HD space.

 

Thank you so much. I greatly look forward to your results, not only for the Shadow of Mordor comparison but also Planetside 2. It's one of my most commonly played games right now and it'd be a massive decision making point if I had knowledge of how well it performed.

Very much looking forward to your review!

 

Well gentlemen... seems the battery cable is damaged, the one where you slip out the black cable from white piece. Apparently it got caught on one of the screw holes... causing all my BSODs.



As you can see, completely came off and wont charge battery. Got to splice this crap once I find my crimps...

 

Yeah, agree, such wasted space that could be used to help cool the CPU/GPU.

I'm actually been looking into an external usb caddy for my optical drive for when I upgrade it to a BD writer. Also been thinking of getting 2x 2TB HDD like you. Did you get the Samsung ones?