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

In terms of throttling, I am not seeing any stutters in game (unless I am playing something real cpu demanding like zerg action in gw2 wvw), I did play Shadow of Mordor yesterday maxed settings at 1080p and it ran fluentlly (60 fps at least) without any stutters (with amazing visuals, game is a real looker at max ) only thing that bothers me is that the laptop is cheap looking compared to AW and Razer, though AW doesn't have a slim powerhouse and Razer doesn't offer 980m (and won't ever).

CPU fan started to get louder and louder though, CPU needs repaste probably but I won't repaste until I am for sure keeping the laptop, gotta get a good laptop cooling pad though, options:

Amazon.com: Cooler Master NotePal U3 PLUS - Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad with 3 Moveable High Performance Fans (Black): Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: CM Storm SF-19 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad with Two 140mm Turbine Fans (SGA-4000-KKNF1): Electronics

This laptop comes with flaws, beware! HOWEVER there is seriously no other laptop that cools down 980m inside 0.8inches.

 

I agree with you that it has flaws but I don't think it looks cheap I think a glowing dragon on the lid and a blue/orange power button would look a lot worse but hey, personal choice haha.
For me the biggest flaw is still this sucky WiFi adapter and Windows 8.1. For some reason Bluetooth is working wonderfully (better than it ever has before) but sometimes when I come out of hibernate the WiFi gives me trouble. No real BSODs to speak of, so I should be thankful. Still looking for a decent WiFi card and have read quite a lot of people had problems with Killer too.

 

Apparently, it's mostly the AC WiFi adapters which are problematic.

 

For coolers, I have this: DEEPCOOL Multi Core X8 Laptop Cooling Pad 17" Pure Aluminium Extrution Panel 4* 100mm Fans - Newegg.com . It fits the P35X perfectly, absolutely perfectly. As for cooling, I think it does a fantastic job. No real complaints except that there is only one speed settings for all fans, but you can toggle which set of fans are on (the 2 back, 2 front, or all 4). The metal grills are fantastic for allowing more air to flow under the laptop in addition to acting as a sort of heat sink. Also, there's only two settings for the two kickstands on the bottom, out or not out. The height is not bad though, so honestly I don't mind too much.

I'm going to buy some laptop screws and replace the ones holding the keyboard with longer ones to reduce the unlevelness. The fingerprints are far more annoying right now though, lots of wiping.

 

That Cooling Pad looks interesting. Do the fans align with the intake vents below? Any rough estimates as to how many degrees it drops from both the CPU and GPU? Does it prevent the CPU from throttling?

 

Yeah I've read that too. Still sucks to give up AC but that's what I might do anyway.

 

I am trying to find a 980M laptop and it seems like there is only four options.

Asus
MSI
Gigabyte
Sager

Are there any other options?

 

Insert washer under the keyboard could work, but I didn't really try to fix it since I use mechanical keyboard at home anyway.

980m can definitely handle 3k gaming, throttling is mostly happened on CPU, but I'm not the one to talk to about this.

Regards

 

I think the 970m FHD is the better choice for the gigabyte, the 980m with 3k just pushes the cpu too hard causing too much heat and throttle. If you want a laptop purely for gaming the gigabyte probably not the best choice, however if you want a good everyday laptop with great gaming capability then theres not many that could compete. Just my personal opinion, Ive had the p35w v3 FHD for awhile now and still love it. Yes its a print magnet, but so was the razer blade 14 and the msi ghost. All the black metal chassis seem to be for some reason.

 

I would take 3K just for windows, it is just so much more better than a FHD screen. Plus, I am still yet to see "blurry picture", I am making comparison to my AW 17 screen (arguably the best 17" FHD screen out there?) and I am pretty sure the picture quality is the same on this Panasonic 3K screen (if not better).

@joe: p35x is cheaper looking compared to AW and Razer (didn't say anything about gs60 as I don't own one). It has plastic bottom panel, obvious keyboard flex, borders around the screen is cheap plastic as well (instead of glass we have on AW and Razer, or Macbook Pro). They just made the visible areas aluminum and the rest plastic, that's why I think it is cheap looking. That being said, I like the laptop, I had plastic laptops before.

 

Imo, 1080p is more than good enough for a 15 in screen, 3k is overkill and just causes more heat and eats battery, again this is just my opinion and other may actually be able to see a difference in screen quality, to me it looks exactly the same just smaller on 3k.

My 55" TV is a different story, id love to have 3k on it.

 

Btw every single time I turn on laptop I get:

BTHUSB
Perflib
DistributedCOM
DistributedCOM

erros, anybody has this? If somebody can check their event log and verify this I would really appreciate!

 

I got this on mine and researched it and found an nvidia forum saying that it was related to not enough power to the GPU.
That was the final straw and I returned mine.

 

Nope its not related to GPU, happens when laptop boots on iGPU (dGPU is dead off to the point readings are flat 0), as I said before DistributedCOM seems like a software error. Though it is still irritating.

 

I'm just telling you what I found on Nvidia forum that matched exactly what my event viewer said they said it was power related.

I do not know what what it is. I just tired of all the little thing here and there. I was just done at that point.

 

So what laptop did you get instead of the P35X?

 

Can you link this nvidia forums source? Just curious.

 

I am in the process of looking.

I'm actually starting to think about a thicker laptop like the dominator or the asus and just carry it in my bag because I do not think the techno has caught up to slim laptops and that it is false advertising.

What everyone doesn't understand is that you can get a 980m all day in an ultra thing but if you have to undervolt or turn off features you are not getting what you pay for.

What is the point of buying a 980M if you can't use it to its full potential?

The last two I can look at is a Dominator or Asus.

Unless I just get a 970M and because that is a nice balance.

 

I will try to find it again I deleted it once I sent the laptop back.

 

Those are 17in laptops though, right? I want to stay with a 15.6in one. I agree with you regarding potential, but what if I just want it for league of legends and battlefield 4? I would get the IC Diamond repaste, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing.

 

This is one of them:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...pc-to-reboot-after-5sec-in-windows-/?offset=4

I think that was the exact error I was getting in my event viewer. I think I found one more but I would have to keep looking...

 

Attached some pictures for you so you can gauge thickness and height. Not quite, they are to the left and right of the laptops bottom vent. No estimates on the degree drop as I haven't bothered to measure it since I haven't been experiencing almost any thermal throttling. At least I see almost none during benchmarks.

 

For those bothered by the keyboard unevenness on the f key: play with the screw under it, on the bottom of the laptop. You can literally see the f key going up and down.

 

Yeah I guess "handle" is the word. But if you want 60fps in a game like Dragon Age Inquisition, you aren't going to be playing in 3k at ultra, that's what I was meaning.
Games from a year or two ago I can play at 3K ultra 60fps, but not some of the really new stuff.

 

Yeah I agree with you that it's not near the same level as a Razer of Macbook Pro. The plastic, while understandable, makes it feel far less premium (especially around the display which I see all the time). I guess it's because I had an old-school 35-43mm thick Clevo for a year my standards dropped dramatically. By comparison this thing looks great

 

I think it is time to post my results. I am still in I-can-return-the-laptop period, so I did tinker as far as I could!

Heaven has been my main benchmarck here, I also get the weird error on Firestrike. I did set it up as

dx11
Quality: Ultra
Tesselation: Extreme
Stereo 3d: Disabled
Multi monitor: disabled
AA: x8
Full screen
1080p

For all the tests, High performance mode, fans in auto-high, laptop flat on wooden table or propped up by a wine bottle cork put under the rear of the laptop. No cooler. I did benchmark the first pass of heaven, wait for two passes, and rebenchmarked the fourth. Undervolting using XTU, testing stability with one hour of prime 95, only played with dynamic core voltage and cache voltage, multiplier etc are the same.

Flat on table:

stock first: 47.4, 1195, throttling; fourth 47.2, 1190 throttling. CPU hits the 90
stock , -60 mV on dynamic voltage and cache voltage, first 47.5, 1196, less throttling, fourth, 47.2, 1190, less throttling

Propped up

Stock, first 47.5, 1198, throttling, fourth, 47.3, 1192, throttling, cpu hits the 90
stock, -60mV on dynamic and cache, first 47.4, 1194, fourth, 47.5,1197, less throttling, CPU hits the 90
Repasted liquid pro, -60mV on dynamic and cache, first 47.6, 1199, fourth 47.7, 1200, no throttling, CPU stays in the 80s, GPU in the 75s.

Here are the figures







And since I know GarbageMan likes XTU (; sorry I do not have BF4 yet to do your standard benchmark, I can try to get it if I have time.

 

So what are you thinking?

You going to keep it or return it to?

I'm heavily looking at:

Sager NP8652
MSI 72 Dominator
GS60 Ghost Pro

I might have to go thicker for 0 throttling.

 

If I am returning this laptop, I am waiting until Razer Blade 2015. p650sg is almost 1.5 times thicker than this laptop + heavier (not to mention weird facets). On the other hand Razer Blade 2014 has proven design (doesn't throttle), probably it won't. I am still not decided though, my only problem right now is that it is a 2.6k laptop that is not looking better than my 3 year old AW or 1.5 year old Razer...

@GarbageMan, I am just getting a Microsoft error, probably it was different error what we were getting.

 

Well I can guarantee you that the razer blade 2015 will have a 970M.

But I believe it will have a very nice build quality and much longer battery life.

...

The errors just got out of control with me. I think it's a great laptop. I just don't want to be a gigabyte beta tester. I mean how long has gigabyte been on the laptop business?

 

^^ This, exactly, the laptop feels like a beta test product.. Even watching 1080p@60fps youtube is ramping up the CPU fan to max speed (70C minimum).

 

Haha yeah garbageman totally agree with you. P35X Beta. I feel like I should be getting paid.

Still keeping it, even with all the problems it's the nicest laptop I've ever owned and is absolutely fantastic for gaming. Will probably just swap out the wifi card.

 

Nice.

Yes. If you have patience I think it is a great machine and I'm sure everything will work out adventually.

Now but what about me?

What do I buy ...

MSI Dominator
GS60
Sager NP8652

Anything I don't know about?

 

Yes you've to have patience with all its flaws but the 980m makes up for it.

Have you considered the GS60 big brother, GS70? I have one and its an awesome machine. Shame they didn't offer a 980m also which I think it could of housed and kept cooled with its large size.

-Sent from my Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

Try gs60, it has a state of the art cooling design (intakes above the laptop) and also cutting edge material (not only aluminum) + 4.2 pounds and houses a 970m and a quad core haswell that is not throttling.. Screen is the same Panasonic you saw on p35x (best panel on the market imho). OR wait for Razer Blade 2015, even though it will have 970m guaranteed, it will be rock solid, arguably the best looking gaming machine on the market + 14 inch therefore even more portable + doesn't have huge border around the screen, this p35x and gs60 has similar dimensions to AW 17 (except height) thanks to these borders...

 

I was really struggling to choose between the GS60, the Sager and the P35X myself.

As far as the Sager goes I think the build is worse quality than the P35X and the battery is also quite a bit worse. It's also thicker and heavier. On the other hand, it has better cooling and great upgrades, and is a bit cheaper.

The GS60 I was looking at (and almost bought) looked really nice but the fans in idle were a bit noisier, it only has a 970M and the big blue/orange LED and dragon logo put me off. It's also really really hard to upgrade compared to the P35X. It also has bad battery life.

Hope that helps you in your quest. You just have to choose which machine is right for you, they're all pretty good machines. I think it really sucks that there's no clear winner and I feel like we have to compromise or trade-off something for such expensive machines.

 

^^ Clear winner is always AW, though shame on my favorite brand, they are still offering only 880m or ULV + desktop 980 weirdness... They gotta get their heads out of their asses..

 

I have looked at big brother and I bet it is awesome. I just can't justify the bigger size without the 980m.

I also would love for it to fit in my book bag.

I have owned to GS60 and loved them. The only thing that got me upset was the battery life. Which technically now I could probably get away with.

MSI uses switch with a reboot to go in saver mode and I never did that. If i did that it might last an extra hour.

Never really paid attention to idle fan noise but now that I know to look out for it it would probably bother me.

This are all excellent points. Almost to the point to make me buy another P35x.

BUT.

What is the point of buying it if it throttles. All you are really getting is an overclocked 970M. And you will never ever get more out it. Out of the box that CPU maxes out at 90 degrees.

...

I agree. I do not think somebody with 2500.00 dollars should have to sacrifice anything. This is madness.

I mean even the 2700.00 MSI Dominator Pro with 980m uses a TN panel. I mean is that? That would probably be a done deal if not for that BS.

 

Just wait for new iteration of AW 17, and drop 3k on it and get the best machine ever, you can get a CPU that goes all the way upto 4.4ghz within thermal limits no throttling no hassle. Good thing with AW is, if you talk enough on the phone, you can convince the sales rep to give you 600-800 dollar discounts on these crazy expensive setups.

 

That has peaked my interest.

Will that be a 980M? Dual SLI?

I know the A 17 is much heavier but I did see on in store one time and the build quality looked amazing. Heavy but so solid. But not near as heavy as the Asus.

 

I own an earlier version of AW 17 (m17x r3), AW has the best build quality and cooling any laptop ever had (anybody complaining about it didn't have an AW before, period). It kept my 7970m always < 65C and 2920xm always < 75C (both at stock). I think AW is the Apple of gaming laptops + AW has some of the best customer service ever, you can literally call a technician to your house to troubleshoot hardware problems. First iteration of AW 13 is a disaster atm (ULV processor...) but as soon as they release a quad core version of it (next year) I am dropping 3k on it to get AW 13 (with quad core) + Graphics Amplifier and 980. Perfect concept, poor initial execution, sadly..

 

To be honest I do not know if I can wait. If they announce it real soon I will do it. And no I do not want some botched job from hid. I would want it straight from Dell with warranty.

However if I can't wait I will probably just go with the GS60 because I love the keyboard so much and build quality. I would go for the razer before that but I can't wait. If i do choose the GS60 I will just be content with 970M. I like the amount of performance and the light weight good enough for me until all the beta testing is done on all these other laptops.

My only concern is the dual m.2 raid. I had so many problems last time it made me return it.

But I really want that 1K Read speeds. I love 3 second boots.

I really do not know what to do.

 

You had problems with m.2 raid? Never used m.2 before, btw didn't realize you had gs60 first, can you tell us your experience with it? (pretty sure still many people are not decided with p35x and thinkering gs60 atm)

 

I had two GS60. I absolutely love them. Incredible screen. Amazing keyboard. Best ever. Very sleek like a mac book imo. Change the colors of the keybaord lights I did red. And sound is awesome. Extremely fast boot and played all games very nicely. I just didn't know about xtu at the time. Wish I did. Now i will have to buy yet another one and hope it doesn't thermal throttle.

I only return the first one because I want to try the m.2 raid. The first one had zero issues but had only one m.2 drive.

When I go the second one with m.2 raid I was all happy but then I started to get all kinds of BSOD left and right. During game during windows. Weird stuff too. I even ran memtwst86+ and it show tons and tons of errors.

I do play bf4 24/7 when I get a laptop so I wonder if they packed a little to much in that one. 6GB vram, 16GB ram, and two m.2 drives. Wonder if it caused a little to much heat.

I waited till morning and cold booted the laptop and the memtest86+ errors were gone.

That didn't stop me from returning it though. I get scared real quick on that kind of money.

I just want to drop 2.5 k on something right now that is going to work out of the box nice and cool and not throttle to its max capacity without overclocking.

I do not think that is to much to ask.

 

Would you consider the Sager Np8651? It's got pretty much the same things as the GS60 with the 3gb of vram. It's slightly chunkier by about 5mm I think and also heavier, but again not by much. Neither seem to throttle and get pretty good performances from both. I am a fan of the fantastic keyboard on the GS60 and the nice finish, but I also like how the sager np8651 has a slightly better battery life, slightly lower temperatures, and a better keyboard than what I would find on the gigabyte laptops. I'm not too bothered with the exterior look, it seems nice to me. I also won't be taking it out much with me and don't see it as a fashion accessory so I have no need for flash sparkly items on my laptop. The gigabyte did seem like a very good laptop, but I wasn't sure about the longevity.

Cheers,

 

I am this person haha. I have been following his posts now for a few days.

Thanks for the help and research! I appreciate it!

Let us know what you settle with. Honestly my money will likely follow you.

 

lol. thanks.

I'll keep you posted. To be honest I'm extremely close to re-pulling the trigger on the m.2 raid 0 ghost pro 066 at newegg with 30 day return policy and 0 RMA with premeir.

I will probably give this laptop another try and test out the heat gaming for a while. If i run into issues I will probably get the single m.2 and just press on with no issuess.

The little secret that a lot of people don't know about but if you use switch and reboot you can get more battery life. I need to try this to make sure. Ghost and Dominator have this.

I almost want to get Dominator but screen is TN. No way. But if you get there 3600 one screen is ips.

But if I send 3800 mine as well get Alienware dual sli 980.

...

I like the build quality so much I am willing to take the 970M over the 980M plus no one can prove to me you get genuine 980m performance unthrottled im an ultra slim so what's the point?

...

To me the 970M is just the sweet spot before the next big technology hits.

I can get mack book feel. Play latest games. Not break the bank. Have thus for a few years. And then when Intel releases much cooler chips and gtx 1080 comes out I'll upgrade. But until then I won't notice this gs60 in my bag when I carry it around.

...

So unless someone has any other really awesome options I'm down to this:

1. GS60 Ghost Pro -066
2. GS60 Ghost Pro -064
3. MSI Dominator Pro GT72
4. Sager NP8652
5. Razer 14 2015
6. Alienware 17 - 980M
7. Unknown Beauty That Trumps All

 

What I don't understand about the 66 model... Why 6gb of vram on 1080p screen and only 3gb vram on 4k?

That's my one thing with the gs60. I'd love a 4k screen (will use this for a lot of design work too) but not if the pc can't handle it.

 

If gs60 had 3K monitor + 6GB VRAM version, that would have been my bet, but sadly that doesn't exists

 

The gold one from newegg has 4k and 6GB.

But I just don't want to deal with scalling issues and 4k gaming. It's not it's time yet but you might want to give it a go.

...

I really want to try the Aorus X7 Pro as well but I can't handle cpu throttle at 70°.

 

When I first received the laptop, I was in awe. Then came the time of throttling constatation, build quality deception...

Now, I have a 980m running along 4710 in 0.8 inches factor without throttling, with a bit of thermal headroom. Additionally I am not at the end of my optimization road, these were first pack of results.

The more I think about it, the less I want to return the laptop. I can't stand the weird looks of other gaming laptops, heck even razerblade has this weird green font and snake knot on the lid. Without it, I think I would have gone with razer.

I want the most versatile laptop around with ultra AAA gaming capabilities, without gaming esthetic. I could have gone with p650sg, but the wait time is killing me, battery life is too poor for me, and it is 50% thicker.

Now that I have in my hands that power without throttling, I think I will keep it