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

I used Gelid GC Extreme and have posted results in this thread last month.

I still recommend liquid ultra after seeing those numbers...

 

Would anyone recommend a cooling pad for this specific laptop? I might invest in one if I am going to get the P35W V3. Any users with experience of cooling pads being effective with lower temperatures?

Cheers,

 

I've yet to actually run any games or benchmarks, been way too busy with work and a looming bathroom renovation to give it a proper working over. Hoping to have the time tomorrow. In regards to cooling pads, I'm a firm believer in them. They cost peanuts, and having added airflow for cooling is never a bad thing. I have my desk setup with peripherals plugged into the cooler. That way when home and not travelling, the laptop is off to the side plugged in on the cooling pad. When I travel, I just pick it up and throw it in the bag.

I use the Coolermaster U Stand, has movable fans and can be adjusted up and down to suit different height requirements. Works really well for adjusting the screen height to be more in line with the external monitor. In terms of actual temperature drops, I think on average you're only looking at about a 3 - 4 degree drop in temp. Now if you modify the cooler to use larger fans, I believe this can drop more. There are numerous reviews online.

 

Awesome! Do you mind guiding me to these modded Cool Master Stands? I may or may not be interested, but atleast the stock standard cooling pad itself seems to do a good job!
Cheers,

 

Check the Device Manager for exclamation mark, that's how I found the Intel chipset issue.

Regards

 

For people who can't be arsed to read the previous 205 pages, I don't blame you. I just did. Here is a summary of things I thought were important.

Page#: Summary
--------------------------
P21: Internal Pictures

P22: -50mV undervolt on the CPU should typically net you 4-5C in thermals

P31: more undeverloting info, -100 may be too harsh, guy tried -80, also includes some tools a guy used and his max volts "75mv and a Max CPU volt at 0.8v made 7-9 degress difference"

P33: keyboard zero flex

P34: issue with gigabyte bios version F, 980m not being used, a fix

P44: benchmark and temp graphs for various games at various resolutions

P49: ODD / HDD switch resulted in 980m disabled

P50: fix/explanation for ODD / HDD problem

P53: shadowplay preventing gpu downclock in idle

P56: Cakefish's repaste + pictures!

P57: more repaste benchmarks

P61: someone recommends not using mx4 like cakefish, use gc extreme or liquid ultra instead

P63: someone else recommends gc extreme

P64: issues with ssd latency and possible driver relations

P65: cakefish mentions first attempts at OC

P67: bsod VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR, another vouch for gc extreme

P68: cakefish gameplay videos

P71: unlevel keyboard pictures

P72: some smart manager v3 bugs, cakefish crysis gameplay, sdd latency and ethernet adapter fix

P75: ODD / HDD bug acknowledged by gigabyte

P77: more unlevel buldgey keyboard pictures

P78: Bios and Utilities for p35x

P85: More pictures of repastes, repasted with gc extreme

P87: someone's fix for keyboard unlevelness

P88: small small dent in cakefish's laptop picture

P90: someone's BSOD caused by damaged battery cable

P91: Someone uninstalled intel rapid storage to fix Driver Power State failure BSOD

P92: cakefish wifi/bt problems

P110: Use HWmonitor, Intel XTU, Nvidia Inspector for repaste benchmarks

P111: Some bsod errors relating to undervolting

P112: some ICD repaste benchmarks

P115: someone using 17.0.6x64bit AC7260 drivers

P118: nvidia driver issues

P119: some gc extreme repaste stuff

P134: bsod after trying to update nvidia drivers

P135: to avoid bsod with newer nvidia drivers, start without ac

P140: one persons experience with laptop so far

P148: same person's results on some OC

P150: mentions of -70 being unstable

P155: mention of problems connecting to external monitor via HDMI, wifi became slow.

P159: mention of upgrading smart manager causing a bsod

P173: Info on power throttling

P177: DelFang installed latest nvidia drivers, bsod caused by intel chipset driver, smart manager caused issues, but drivers from gigabyte website did not

P183: someone's intel and nvidia driver versions

P184: someone's ssd broke

P189: cpu freq lock issues

P196: bsod issue from m2 raid 0 on msi gs60

P197: someone's issue with 3rd party installed msata

P202: some guesses to avoid bsod on fresh laptop

P203: some more guesses to avoid bsod on fresh laptop, also make sure to update intel chipset driver

P205: cpu freq lock issues fixed, update smart manager to newest version! someone has bsod from fraps??

 

I ordered the CF4 and will receive it in Israel (yey!) next week on Tuesday. Can't wait.
Can anyone link to an "authentic" liquid ultra paste ? I see a lot of wannabe's out there

Thanks !

 

+ Rep. Handy for anyone who hasn't been keeping up with the thread...

 

I Have the p35w v3 FHD upgraded with 16gb ram, 2x- 128 msata in raid 0, and upgraded the HDD to a 256 gb SSD. Also got the free IC diamond repaste that gentech was offering at the time. Also, because someone did mention that there were problems with the smart manager, I did upgrade my smart manager to the newest version, and then used it to update the rest of my drivers (except for the nvidia one which i used the geforce experience to update) and have had no issues after doing so. I think im running a different driver on the intel management engine also, because the smart update one is an older version i think, and the one im using has given me no issues.

 

Ah ok, so not the P35X. Thanks for the info about updating, I need to make sure I update the laptop accordingly when I order it. I'm thinking next month, hopefully.

 

Oh yea another thing, instead of downloading fraps, why not just use nvidia shadowplay function to monitor your fps? Especially if fraps is causing you to get BSOD.

 

Guys I won't benchmark often but:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,GIGABYTE P35V3

This is CF4

 

Well I just removed Fraps altogether so the issue went away. The only reason I installed Fraps was because afterburner was crashing FC3, which no longer happens for some reason so I'm back to afterburner where I can see temps and fps all in one spot.

I've never messed with shadowplay at all, but I had seen some folks say uninstalling GeForce experience fixed some issues so I would not want to become dependent on it anyway. I didn't know that though about displaying FPS so I will keep that in mind for my other machines, thanks to both of you whom mentioned it!

That looks about right. I think I got 11k+ stock and 12k+ with a simple overclock.

 

I just got mine from FedEx.

I will give more later but I can't wait to get everything set up.

But let me tell you this.

It looks gorgeous.

I thought there would be a little hint of light dark black and some gray but this thing looks jet black and sexy.

The hinges and overall feel are incredible. The pictures do not do it justice. The pictures make it look horrid but in person to me this looks just as sexy as the GS60 Ghost if not better because it's a darker black like this laptop means business.

Key board seems amazing too. Nice and aligned perfectly.

This is all I have at the moment. I'll report more later.

 

Oh yea laptop looks good (not perfect I would say, Razer Blade is still the best looking laptop imho). But it seems like it is quite the performer and also I would say one thing, if you don't like loud laptops, stay away!

 

Have fun! Mine is delayed until Friday :/. Keep us updated with impressions install/update orders, bsod, etc!

 

Will do.

I have only installed classic shell and have install 35 important updates.

So far so good. Do not see any problems in device manager.

About to move onto smart manager and then origin and steam.

I still can't get over this jet black. Even the hinges are painted jet black and match the whole laptop. It's like it is a covert ops laptop.

 

I havent noticed anyone talking about this, but does this laptop come charged? How should the first charge be handled? What would be the best charging pattern, EG 100%-0%-100% or 90%-10%-90%? Is it bad for the battery to leave it plugged in all the time or should you at least try to do a complete charging cycle say once a week?



Sent from my GT-I9300

 

I've wondered this as well. With my Alienware I leave it plugged in when I use it but unplug it while I'm at work.

 

Mine came fully chared.

I would think 100 0 100 would be best.

In windows 8.1 you no long have to be worried about leaving your ac on 24/7 because windows turns of charging when fully charged and leaves the battery alone as 8 if was out of the laptop and 9 nay plugged in.

I have updated smart manager and smart update.

Now I will update each driver one at a time through smart update and then do nvidia update through nvidia experience.

 

Its bad to leave any battery charging all the time. Unfortunately, we all do it anyway. Assuming frequent usage, battery may decline after 4 years.

I remember my Gigabyte arriving with 95% battery life.

 

Ok i stopped using smart update.

Not a big deal but when i got to power switch i skipped around it hung plus it doesn't let you keep the files.

I will just use it as a guide to know which drivers i need to uodate.

I will download them all from gigabyte site and update them one at a time.

So far no issues.

Just personal preference.

 

I have to hang out with some friends soon so I will be out of pocket but I will be back on later tonight!

 

I actually thought this laptop was fairly quiet compared to the razer blade 14, and msi ghost, which both got pretty loud under load. The exception would be if you put it to the max fan setting then I would definitely agree that it is loud. But unless your gaming then it shouldnt be an issue.

* I agree the razer blade is definitely a better build style. Its hard to beat the uniform chassis for quality look and feel. But the gigabyte looks pretty good too.

 

Nevermind. Its here!

So should i avoid using Smart Update to update drivers?

 

I am seeing something weird, when I monitor the temps with afterburner, they drop to 0 for a split second every once in a while, kinda annoying. Anybody saw similar behavior?

 

Would it be hard to find a replacement battery 4 years down the line?

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

I think that can be done directly through Gigabyte.

 

Preferably.

That did not happen when I check the Afterburner. The GPU and CPU usage might drop to 0 between each benchmarks, and some times during load screens, but temps has always at 40-70 degree C.

One thing I do notice is that the GPU 2 (presumably Intel HD graphics) is at 20% when 980m is underload, so it's pretty much always active.

Regards

 

Is it safe to update to the latest nvidia drivers via geforce experience?

Anyone else think autobrightness is too low even with the bias set to max?

 

Yes it's safe, but I always download from their website.

Yes the auto brightness is too low, I just set mine at 100% at all time, combined with f.lux to reduce eye strain at night.

Regards

 

Anyone else have slightly noticeable darker corners on the inside part of the laptop? Right below each set of stickers, there is a distinct darker area, looks like some adhesive was used and later removed, i can't rub it out. Also, I have the slight keyboard bludge as well.

edit: by below, i don't mean under. just look at the corner of your laptop chassis and you'll notice it if you have it.

 

Just got back. I am going to install all the drivers individually

 

gigabyte's website drivers are not as up to date as Smart Updates.

 

I have noticed that as well.

I have also notice that Smart Updates are not as up to date as the direct source.

For example you can download Intel update utility and download driver updates and the Intel video driver is way off. 10. Something verse 15. Something.

 

Hmm, perhaps it's a better idea to go to each manufacturer directly for the latest drivers? Not ideal for keeping them up to date in the future.

 

Only on some. Scratch the Intel ones they are not supported custom to this laptop.

Some drivers are custom to particular laptops so be careful. Slightly back peddling at the moment.

 

This is what I've done so far, keeping a log so that we can figure out what went wrong if something does go wrong. Please no, i spent too much money :_(

All Windows Updates
Use Smart Update to update Smart Manager
Use Smart Update to update Smart Update
Install classic shell
Install aero glass
Install various other apps
Install rainmeter
Tweak with Smart Manager (just settings)
Use Geforce Experience to update Nvidia drivers
Play some maxed out csgo (VERY IMPORTANT, DO NOT SKIP, lol)


Downloading BF4 at the moment and studying for a final tomorrow.

 

Very nice.

I installed Intel management engine direct from Intel and so far so good.

I unistalled Intel video driver and let windows reinstall it from boot and it installed the latest one. Higher than smart update.

 

So you installed the intel driver manager, uninstalled the intel video drivers via device manager, restarted your computer, and it picked up the new drivers? Updating through device manager didn't work?

 

I installed Intel driver utility and it thought my in video card was something else or updated it to 15. Something which was way off. Device manager didn't even recognize it after that.

So I unistalled the Intel driver completely within device manager and rebooted and windows detected and installed the latest driver and recognized it.

To like .60 and smart update was .58

So far I have used gigabyte website for everything except:

Intel management engine
Intel integrated graphics

I am trying to use smart update for the wordless and bluetooth because it says there is a later version and I can't find it.

The utility program had a problem with wireless as well.

 

They are working for me, just update it through Geforce experience

 

Mate, what are the drivers you suggest to update based on your past experience?

 

As long as you update the smart update driver first so you have the latest version of it i highly doubt that any of the drivers on it would cause problems. Downloading drivers from sites other than what gigabyte offers is probably gonna cause more problems than the smart update. Of course i could be wrong but they seem to be working fine for me.

The one BSOD that I have gotten lasted about 45 seconds, my computer restarted and I was good to go again. When that happened I updated my drivers, and havent had one since.

 

So you got a BSOD, then updated your drivers via the most current version of Smart Update and no more BSOD?

 

The ones from Gigabyte's website, except Intel chipset driver and HD graphics and Nvidia driver, which I download the latest driver from respective websites.

Regards

 

Yes, i reset my computer to factory settings, and after i did that i got 1 BSOD. Then i updated my drivers via smart update, except for the nvidia driver which i used geforce, and the intel managment engine because it said the one im using is newer. Since i did this i have had no issues. Im running nvidias 344.75 driver, Intel managment engine 10.0.20.1258 and the rest are the official drivers from the smart manager. No guarantees it'll work for you also, but Ive been running this way for 4 days with no issues.

Good luck with your new laptops! Hope you guys enjoy it as much as i have.

 

Dude, this thing loves oil. I can wipe it off the chassis, but the keyboard, omg... Anyone plan on using a keyboard sleeve if there even is one or have a solution to grease on the keyboard?

 

Yes, the KB is an oil magnet. I was constantly having to wipe the KB keys. Plus, my MBP and GS70 didn't have this issue.

-Sent from my Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

It sure does lol! I have to use a wet cloth to get the prints off a dry one doesnt seem to work. Definitely a pain, but pretty much all the black aluminum chassis' have the same problem. I would also love to find a skin that fits this laptop if anyone knows where to get one.

As for the keys I wonder if there is some kind of clear coat or finish you could put on them to make them less of an oil magnet?