Gigabyte P35x V5 Impressions - Mini Review

Hey guys, I received my P35xV5 laptop about a week ago now, and I've been playing around with it, tuning it, and overall just acquainting myself with the laptop. I feel i have had enough hands on time with it so far to not really review it, but to at least post some thoughts and impressions for those who are on the fence about it.

I bought it from excaliber pc, as they were a good $50 cheaper, plus some extras that the other resellers didn't offer. My build consisted of the i7 6700HQ, free upgrade to 16GB 2133 SKHynix DDR4, 1TB 7200 RPM HD, and the 8GB 980M.

After opening the box, the laptop is bigger than what I was thinking it was going to be, but also thinner than where I was thinking it'd be. It's thin, lightweight, and aesthetically pleasing. It doesn't have the styling of a mainstream gaming notebook, which was my biggest draw to it. I had a MSI Ghost Pro with 970M before, but it still reeked of "Gaming Laptop" nerd when I took it to meetings, etc.

Being in the professional world, I wanted a laptop that gave me the performance to game wherever I wanted, but still keeping a respectability in the looks department. This laptop has it.

I installed a Samsung 950 Pro 512MB nvme m.2 SSD. It went very smoothly, installing Windows 10 without issue. I didn't have any driver issues, thanks in part to the fact that Gigabyte includes their driver CD, which was a welcome sight.

I downloaded Steam, installed some games, and went off to play. The 980M is very powerful, 8GB should future proof it somewhat, as games look to larger textures, etc. My Alienware before this was of the 4GB variety, which probably would have been fine, but again, the alienware didn't have the style that I needed.

Benchmarking, I used Firestorm and Intel XTU. The main issues that I've read about is the temps for the prior versions of the p35x. Needless to say, they hadn't improved much. During longer benchmark sessions, the CPU was running at about 103 degrees, which is far too hot. The GPU was much better, only getting to the mid 70's max. The performance was pretty good regardless, but those types of temps don't sit well with me.

I ordered some IC Diamond 7, cracked back open the laptop, and found the cause for the high temps. I know you can't expect a pristine paste job from these resellers or manufacturers, but you'd think they'd at least know that a crazy amount of paste doesn't equal a good paste job. Less is more in this case. After repasting, the temps have came down drastically, CPU temps are in the low 80's under full load, and the GPU hovers at 70.

For as thin and light as this laptop is, I'll say that I'm overall happy with those temps. The CPU could stand to come down further, but given that it shares 1 fan, it's acceptable.

Benchmark with Firestrike: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/7399490
Score: 9138

Here are a few shots of the initial paste job from the factory, and just a general interior shot as well.

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/WTF360/Mobile Uploads/20160130_102121_zpszprzcd50.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/WTF360/Mobile Uploads/20160130_102112_zpsuopja3r4.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/WTF360/Mobile Uploads/20160130_102108_zpskodvwhln.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/WTF360/Mobile Uploads/20160125_150309_zpscobern3g.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/WTF360/Mobile Uploads/20160125_150155_zpsdj7jlsey.jpg

The temperatures continue to drop. While running Firestrike or XTU benchmarking, it's getting to a max of around 82 on CPU. The repaste did wonders with this.

I'm pretty happy with where I'm at overall.

I've had several PM's on the laptop, wondering my thoughts, so I wanted to get them out here in the open so everyone can see. Feel free to ask questions.

Also, I'm probably not going to be undervolting, etc. I have no experience with it, and thus far, I'm completely happy with where the performance is, as well as temps. For a thin and light gaming laptop, it's far exceeded my expectations.

 

Awesome. Thank you for the quick review. A little to late for me as I just ordered mine earlier today. We should start a V5 owners thread.

 

Thank youfor sharing your first impressions!
I am also considering to order this laptop today or tomorrow, could you please answer a few questions?
1) What is the actual weight of the laptop and of the power brick?
2) What do you think about the keyboard and trackpad? Are they bad like on the previous models?
3) How is the overall build quality?
3) How are the temperatures under normal loads? Could you use it in your lap?

Thanks in advance!

 

The actual weight of the laptop, I can't really say. I'd say around 5lbs, and the brick adds another lb. And those numbers may be slightly high, I'm not sure.

The keyboard is great. It's a chiclet style keyboard and I have no issues with it. I don't have any stuck keys, and everything feels really good. The amount of space for my hands on the rest pad are great. I like the chiclet style keyboard much more than the other style. I have no complaints with the keyboard at all. I'm a "comfort" typist as well, so keyboard wise, if I can't type a certain sentence with ease and precision, then it's a huge turnoff. Thankfully this one fits the bill.

The overall build quality is stellar. I don't worry about it in the least. I was weary of it, due to reviews of the V1, V2 and V3, some warping issues, etc. But I've taken this thing apart 5-6 times now already, and there are no gaps, and the system feels very solid. I can hold it from one end/corner, and there isn't bending nor flexing. For the size, weight, I don't think you can get much better unless you go with a unibody setup. Even during my taredowns, I've inspected every corner of it, the thing is solid. It doesn't feel like they've skimped out at all. My only issue was the stock paste job, and now that I have that remedied, I'm absolutely satisfied.

The temperatures, I really can't say. I ran Intel Xtreme Tuning Utilities "Benchmark" and Stress test last night. Both, the highest the CPU got was around 47 degrees. Our house is generally 72 degrees, so that gives you the ambient temp. That's with no cooling pad, etc. The fans stay low. During Firestrike, it'll get to around 82 degrees tops now. Prior to the repaste it was 102-103 which was ridiculous.

I'm going to try to do some gaming on it tonight, to see where it comes back. I have Tomb Raider downloaded finally, waiting on my GTA V to get done. I'll try to game for a bit and let you all know. Unfortunately, my wife & I are due for our 3rd child any day now, so I may disappear for a few days if it comes early. I'll get it tested though.

This is the first laptop that I've had, that even after a week of owning, I haven't found a thing that I don't like about it. Normally I'll find a few things here and there that I'd change if I could, but this thing really fits what I'm looking for.

I used it last night in my lap with no problems. I used some Photoshop, 3DS Max, and then played some WWE 2k15. I know that if I could increase the core clock, I could get up to above 10k on Firestrike, and keep it relatively cool .

 

Very useful info, thanks again! I think I'll go for it (my other option is a Clevo P650RG).
I'll probably order it tomorrow - it's already midnight here in Ireland.

One more question - how much light bleeding is there on the screen?
And please keep informing us about your impressions.

P.S.: Congratulations on your new family member, I wish you all the best!

 

No problem at all. Thanks on the congrats. Curious to see how #3 will effect the day to day life, ha.

I don't see any light bleed whatsoever. The lcd surround is solid around the screen, no bleeding. All colors are sharp and crisp. it's one of the nicer screens that I've looked at. Light, color, etc is uniform across the monitor. I saw your post in the What to buy section. I voted the Gigabyte, haha. Congrats on the new laptop.

 

Haha, I suspected so Hopefully I won't regret going against the majority (it's currently 4:1 in favour of the other option)!

Unfortunately I couldn't order it today yet, I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, for all interested here is a new review of the laptop - published today: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/laptops/gigabyte-p35-v5-review-3634340/

 

Thanks for the review. I too am about to pull the trigger on this notebook. Can you tell whether the USB 3.1 Type C is compatible with Thunderbolt 3? Thanks!

 

I advice you to wait and read more user reviews when they come.

I only checked the notebookcheck review at that time. But In the end they did not notice the poor build quality issues for the P34w series that a lot of people DID/DO encounter including me. I was just lucky I could return it within 3 months at Amazon.

 

The wait is killing me.

 

Got my P35Xv5-SL3 yesterday from Amazon. So far so good, no dead pixels, all ports working. Fire Strike 1.1 is 8383 out-of-the-box. I didn't want a 4K screen, but did want a Blu-ray burner, so I ordered a Panasonic UJ-272, which matches the dimensions of the DVD-RW drive (also a Panasonic). It looks like it will be simple to transfer the front bezel from the DVD-RW to the Blu-ray drive; I'll post again once I get it and verify it works in the swappable bay (should be tomorrow).

 

Send some pics when you get the chance. Also, what are your first impressions? Smaller/bigger then you thought? Better/worse build quality then you thought?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

The UJ-272 was an easy swap; I pried the bezel off of the stock DVD-RW and it fit perfectly onto the Blu-ray burner's front (you do have to be careful when taking off the bezels, though; I snapped a tab off of the UJ-272's stock bezel when doing this - though I won't be using that one anyway). There is a small metal plate on the DVD-RW held in place with two screws that also needed to be transferred to the UJ-272 so that the locking mechanism for the swappable bay works; otherwise, the lock does not prevent sliding out the drive.

As far as build quality, mine is solid with regard to fit & finish, but it does have the waviness in the keyboard noticeable around the 'F' key, like other P35X units have been shown to have. I haven't played around with the keyboard screws yet to see if I can eliminate it, but it doesn't really have any negative effect when typing.

 

Size comparison between P35X and the P34Gv2 it is replacing.

 

Looks Great! I still got another week or so to wait until mine gets here.

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Finally ordered mine today!
It should arrive on Wednesday, can't wait to try it out.
I'll answer any question once I have it, and I plan to write a review when I find the time.

 

Sorry for the delay in response fellas. Baby girl has arrived, and doing well.

I do have a VERY slight wave on the D/F keys for the keyboard. Not enough that you can feel while typing, but if you bring the keyboard to eye level, you can notice a very light dip.

I'm still very impressed with the machine. I'm glad to see more guys jumping on the P35xV5 ship. It's a solid laptop, and deserves a ton of credit. I've been picking it up by the corners when needed, and it has no flex or give whatsoever. With the SSD installed, it goes from asleep to desktop in around 3-4 seconds tops. Boots in 7-8 seconds tops.

I've not had the chance to run any additional benchmarks, but I'm overall very satisfied with everything.

 

the P35X V3 and above are really powerful machines. although Gigabyte has yet to prove it's track record when it comes to durability and I hope they don't disappoint. so far, the only concern I have right now is the heat and fan and it's future impact on the unit. I just hope it would atleast be reliable enough to atleast go for 4-5 years without any issues and maintenance check.

 

To be honest, I haven't seen much in the way of an excessive fan. It may be from my repaste, but the temps and fan speeds aren't bad at all. I don't game for long long hours, but will still put it through it's paces, and it hasn't really been out of the ordinary, despite being so thin. I can't really say whether or not it'll last 5 years. Knowing me and my desire to have the latest tech, mine won't last 5 years, haha. But this I do know, I will definitely be keeping Gigabyte at the front of the line thus far for when new tech rises. This is my first gigabyte laptop, and the first one that I've even seen in person. I'm impressed.

 

I dont think the gigabyte will last for 5 years, 5 years is a stretch for any laptop to begin with.

 

Notebookcheck now has their review up:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-P35X-v5-Notebook-Review.158948.0.html

 

Hello, I've been checking out this laptop for a while now, but there are some elements that are holding me back.

I'm a college student. I usually use my laptop at home, but ocassionally I need to take it to college (around 15 mins walk from home to my university). I don't have too much time to game, but I want to have the 980m for when I do. I currently have a Lenovo laptop that weighs 5.7lbs and I consider it too heavy for my need.

From what I know, the P35X v5 weighs 5.3lbs, the difference is not much, but I guess I can be flexible here since it has the 980m. I also know that this gaming laptop has really good battery life in comparison to others (around 5 hours of normal use), like the MSI GS60 (which is my other choice versus the P35X).

Other things like the touchpad and keyboard quirks, weigh (GS60 weighs around 4.4lbs) are holding me back from choosing the P35X, however, it has great battery life and the 8GB 980m (versus the 3GB 970m in the GS60).

Can someone help me out?

 

I'd say truly, it just depends on what is more important to you. If it's weight, then the GS60 is the one that'd fit the bill. If it's power and performance, then I'd say the P35xv5 is where you need to go. That's something that nobody can truly help you with. The machine is solid, no doubt. You can remove the optical drive and use the blank HDD bay to reduce weight a little on the P35xV5, if that helps. I took out the 2.5" 1TB HD and have the 512GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2. nvme Drive in mine, as the only drive, which reduced the weight even more, and I'd say improved the battery even more. There's definitely ways to reduce the weight, but ultimately, I don't think you'll be able to get down to 4.4lbs, but then again, the 4.4lb machine isn't as potent as this thing is.

I know that really doesn't help, but when you posted "I want to have the 980m for when I do", that tells me that this is the machine for you, if you value the 980m over the little additional weight. I take this with me daily, and I don't consider it a burden whatsoever. Hope this helps.

 

Congrats on the new baby!
I also have a GS60 970M that I'm thinking might need to be replaced soon ( nothing wrong with it and runs great but you now how it is with new tech )
Anyway comparing the two under load/gaming are the P35X V5 fans as loud as the GS60?
Not that my GS60 is incredibly loud but I do like the fans to be as quiet as possible, great to see much cooler temps after repasting because the factory job looks horribly applied, after using ICD with the repaste are the fans not as loud under load?
Yes I have a thing about fans being distracting and loud when gaming but still want something thin and lite for the road and this seems like a good fit.
Thanks and congrats again with the new bundle of joy!

 

I understand. Thank you for your comment, it's greatly appreciated. I will consider your suggestion. I'll wait and see Razer's refreshes and EVGA's new laptop to see if they fit my needs, otherwise, I think I'll be going with the P35X.

 

it can really be a stretch. I'm just saying because my Asus G73JH began displaying some problems after 5 years of continuous load working non-stop 24/7. the only issues I have of it was a bricked power port (battery port of the laptop), heavy and massive power brick, poor battery life (1 hour on average), no fan speed control, needed re-pasting, and current driver support for the GPU.

I have an extended warranty for my P35X V4 for 4 years. just in case it begins displaying any problems, atleast the company would replace it anytime. my unit seems to be beginning to be discontinued now. atleast the store guaranteed me to give me something of an equivalent or better unit if ever it is discontinued.

 

to be honest, I wouldn't be so optimistic about the fan noise. despite whatever they say about the fan noise being better, it would not be so significantly quiet not to be distracting. it is still considerably noisy considering the GPU is an extremely powerful one. added the optimal settings for gameplay, it would run like hell. the cpu by itself is cool but the integrated graphics does contributed a lot to the heat which is why the Nvidia chip is advisable to be used as the default display gpu. unless laptops begin to use some liquid cooling agent, there isn't really much of us laptop users could do as far as fan noise is concerned other than use a noise-cancelling headphone when gaming some really heavy games. that's the only way the deters me from hearing the annoying jet engine noise from the fan. although I could control the fan speed, I would not necessarily change it for the purpose of not hearing some noise during gaming. I'm more on prioritizing on preserving the unit than achieving noise-free comfort.

 

Thanks for the congrats IKAS V. And like TellyBoi said, the fans are still prominent. Unfortunately that goes with the territory of a thin and light notebook with a 980M, ha. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to put up with though.

Also, I've done some 1-2 hour gaming sessions in the past few days. The CPU and GPU are both topping out around 88 degrees and 81 degrees respectively. That's with Tomb Raider on Max, NBA 2k16 maxed, Rise: Son of Rome, etc. It definitely gets warm. Make sure you have a cooling pad or at least something to put it on while on your lap.

 

Mine gets here on Friday. Here is a review for people who are still deciding. http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews...nd-netbooks/gigabyte-p35x-v5-1315087/review/3

 

I get the fans are going to be loud in a thin and powerful laptop like this ( again I have a GS60) just wanted a to hear how much louder they are than your GS60 for comparison.
I know its not going to be a quiet laptop under load but just wanted your opinion on those two laptops since you had them both, I can take some more fan noise but trying to figure out exactly how much louder it is .
Thanks

 

The fans are VERY similar to that of the GS60. If anything, they're a very tiny bit louder, but not enough to be a discernible difference.

 

Got mine yesterday from Copic PC. Took a little while. The packaging was sufficient but upon further inspection I noticed that they didn't fully seat the case when they put it back together.

Laptop wise it is lighter and better looking then I expected. The length and width is bigger then I expected. I'll post more when I have time. Here are some photos. Ask any questions you might have.

 

Phenomenal. Unfortunately it looks as if I'll be selling mine already, haha. Our health insurance didn't cover nearly as much of the delivery and hospital expenses as we were counting on. Awesome.

 

How much are you selling it for?

 

I'm not sure. I've got my projector listed right now. If I can possibly not sell the laptop, I'd of course prefer not to.

 

Sorry to hear wtferrell

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

Glad to see yours cane safely. I've been playing on it nonstop. Such a slick machine. I love the style of this laptop. Who'd know it's a beast of a gamer.

 

sorry to hear that. it must really suck !

 

Yeah, more bills came today unfortunately. I've been on the phone with the hospital and insurance company, not a great time right now.

 

All of a sudden I can not successfully install any Nvidia Drivers. Just goes to blue screen with "video_dxgkrnl_fatal_error windows 10 nvidia" until I role back.

 

the Windows 10 bug.

 

Yeah I think I am going to have to RMA it

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Hi everyone,

I got my new p35x v5 today. It's great computer ...well it was... until I pluged in a headphones. Awful high pitched coil whine is comming out of them. It's DC/DC converter feedback, because the tone changes with the computer load. Even turning on keyboard backlight makes a difference in the tone. This is ridicolous that >2k euro machine has that kind of a problem... I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Does anyone of you have similar issue or it's just problem with my particular unit?

I'm going to return mine and I really hope that I'm the only person with this problem. I really like this notebook, but it's impossible to listen to any kind of music or sounds because of this noise. I tried 3 different types od headphones and 2 sets of speakers... at least it does not affect built-in speakers.

 

What type of head phones? I can try it with mine once I get home and then ill let you know.

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Hi,
thanks for your reply

I tried:
1. LG G4 headphones
2. Sony MDR-CD780
3. AKG K702
4. very old Creative P380
5. homemade tube amp

well it doesn't matter what I plug in it's still the same. It even has same volume no matter what I do with volume settings. I can mute speakers and whinig still continues. It's power supply EMI for sure, but I want to know if this is only my problem or this is a design flaw. You should never put power electronics operating at audio frequencies close to anything audio...

Please let me know ASAP, because I've got only 7 days to return the product "without any reason". After that it will be sent for a repair. And I don't quite believe PC services.

 

I have the same issue with my Galaxy S5 headphones. Have u tried USB?

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You must be kidding... Really? Buzzing high pitched tone from headphones? I just can't believe that Gigabyte would release a product with such issue.

USBs are working correctly. BTW mine p35x is going to go to the service tomorrow. I should get brand new one, but after what you just wrote I don't believe it will solve the problem...

 

I have same problem, here is S.Korea and I bought this (P35X5 V5) (geforce 980m model, FHD) few days ago, and I hear same white noise? or high pitched coil whine? whatever.
When I connect earphone or outer speaker (Sony SRS X88), it hears. And there are many owners of P35 or P55 models with same problem in S.Korea Gigabyte community.

Support center said just use it until they can contact me again after 3 months... maybe impossible, I should resist or I should find solution. I like this laptop other than this problem, and I don't want another setup whole programs I installed at this..

 

OK. Well it's not OK... I like that notebook too, but I also like to listen to the music when I work (because I'm not just playing games on a computer)
I searched for images of its internals and they used one ribbon cable for ethernet, USBs, SD card and audio. That calble looks to be unshielded. I don't know where's sound chip but maybe ther's a solution for this problem, without big sound quality degradation.

Maybe after extensive listening to the coil whining I'll become deaf to that sound

 

May I ask you, if this is the problem of all the P35 owners or just some of them?