***Gigabyte P37X Owner's Lounge***

Hi guys!
Here it is: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5348

 

I travel frequently and I've never owned a 17" laptop before.

Would you say this is too large to use comfortably on a plane in coach seating?

 

It won't fit on your lap in most airliners because of the width of the seats, but you can support if over the armrests.

 

Is it too wide to fit on the tray? I mean, is it going to go over the edge to disturb the person sitting next to me?

I don't really use laptops on my lap, particularly anything with quad core CPU and 980M, as I hope to have children some day.

 

Smart guy!
The width of a coach seat is between 17" and 18" (space between the armrests).
The width of the P37X is 417mm ~16.4".
You can put it on the tray for sure.

 

A friend of mine frequently flies overseas for work, he says his 13 inch MBPr is about as big as he can use in coach/economy nowadays due to the drastic cuts in legroom on airline flights in the past ten years. So I'd be inclined to worry about length/height before width.

 

If you're flying JAL (Japan Air Lines) then you won't even have space for your own balls! lol

 

If the person sitting in front of me decides to recline their seat, it can suddenly get real cozy, but otherwise so far I'm able to use my 15" hp envy quite comfortably.

On short domestic flights, or whenever I can get upgrades, it won't be an issue, but if I'm flying to Asia or Europe in coach, I'm somewhat worried about being able to get work done with 17" model.

 

What are those "g" keys? Macros?

 

So a couple interesting comparisons to the 35x...

The 37x does not have a woofer, but the 35x does

They have the exact same # of ports despite the extra room on the 37x

The 37x does not offer a wqhd screen, while the 35x does

It appears that gigabyte just took their p35x design and expanded it, instead of adding new things for the extra space. The only new thing I can see is the macro keys. I wonder if the cooling is any better.

 

This is really the only thing on your list that doesn't disappoint me much. I don't think any panel manufacturer makes a 17" laptop display greater than 1080p yet, so there's not much Gigabyte can do about that. I'm not all that interested in anything greater than 1080p right now anyway since it's more taxing to the GPU. Maybe in a couple more years.

Edit: PS, I posted this in the other thread, but maybe this one is more appropriate.

HIDevolution has it available for pre-order on their site now. It says late February release. Hopefully this is just a placeholder or something, because the price for those specs is a little hard to justify. For $2000 it doesn't come with any mSata installed and only 8GB of ram. After adding a couple mSatas and upgrading to 16GB of ram, you're at the price of an X7 Pro.

http://www.hidevolution.com/gigabyte-p37x-s11-i7-4720hq-2-6ghz-8g-980m-8g-ram-1tb-hd-17-3.html

 

P37X looks great hopefully the extra size helps keep temps cooler and the fans are not crazy loud like the P35X.

 

Yes. It looks like the Aorus X7 Pro keyboard.

 

I thought they would use M.2 instead of mSATA.

 

37 should have better airflow than 35

 

I truly hope so and hopefully doesn't sound like a jet taking off under full load.
I can honestly say the loud fans are a huge turn off with the P35X and with the P37X I don't want it to be the same .( even though I think it might be becuase they are basically the same model )
The P37X ticks off a lot of boxes:
IPS screen
Lots of storage options
Looks great
Most importantly has a 8GB GTX 980M .
Hopefully the designers/engineers thought of a better solution for the cooling system, nothing crazy but I slightly bigger fan with bigger fins/blades would help keep levels to a more tolerable level .

 

It is $2000, unless gigabyte makes the 17 in cheaper than the 15 in, which at 2000, they are the same. In my opinion it's worth it, but it's really up to you if you want to spend that much. However, vs the x7 pro, sli isn't always supported, so the 37x will do better in a lot of games, and cpu in the x7 throttles at only 70 degrees, so you want be getting much out of that. Again, it's your decision though

 

I don't have any problem spending $2000. I just think it should have 16gb of ram and at least one 128gb msata drive for that price. I think, ideally, the sweetspot for me would have been 2x256gb SSDs and 16gb of ram for $2400. You get 3x256gb ssd's (and a 970m instead of 980m, obviously) for $2500 with the GS70. It's between those 2 laptops for me right now.

 

Now I'm curious as to why some people seem to think 13 inches is the limit. Do you ever worry about your laptop getting damaged by the reclining seats? That's another thing I've heard about airplane travel. Don't really have personal experience in the matter - I didn't own a laptop yet last time I was on a plane, money has been a bit tight due to school the last few years.

 

well... for 2400 before discounts on the 35x you got 16 gb ram and 2x128gb ssds, plus a 3k screen, so they may introduce something in that price range

 

Just a quick correction. It's funny that people say that the X7 Pro throttles at 70 degrees. It doesn't throttle until its over 90 degrees. Check the Aorus X7 Pro Lounge. All the throttling that was reported at the low 70 degress were for the review laptops. These review versions also didn't have didn't have hard drives and they had a TN panel. While the ones that you actually buy in stores have a 1TB hard drive and they have IPS panels.

After saying all that, the Aorus X7 Pro still does throttle, so that is still a problem, just not at that low temperature. Also, it seems that the CPU of most SLI laptops are throttling as well (see the MSI GT80 Titan Owner's Lounge) and that system is huge in comparison so may be more than just a ventilation issue.

As for the P37X, if you do a search on Amazon, they have two listings for it one at $2,000 and one at $2,500. All the specs are placeholders, but that could give you an idea on price.

 

Depending on where you seat (aisle, mid, window, etc.) you may get annoyed very quickly by passengers in transit, not to mentioned possible accidents.
The smaller the better in that case.

I wonder if the P37X will support all four drives in RAID 0. Will it?

 

From what we know now (and we don't know a huge amount to be fair), are we expecting thermal performance that is worse than, roughly equal to, or somewhat better than the X7 Pro? In other words, should we roughly expect the same limitations of the X7 Pro in terms of fan noise and surface temperatures? As far as I can see, as far as thermal design goes:

Negatives: less venting that the X7 Pro, 1 less heat pipe (4 versus 5)

A wash: Same CPU TDP, dual fans with roughly same size, unclear whether TDP for single 980m versus 2x 970m comes out ahead or not

 

Not considering the VRAM and all other circuitry in the MXM board, two 970M will consume about 162W[1] against 100W[2] of one 980M.

[1] http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html
[2] http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980M.126692.0.html

 

Yeah, I would think the P37x should run cooler because of the lower power consumption plus the extra space available from not having the second GPU.

 

I can't seem to find it now, but I remember a review or discussion on the 970m, and the author alluded to the fact that spreading the heat of the 970m SLI over two GPUs might actually be better for thermal design than the single 980m, so that's why I mentioned the former.

Edit: Found it -- AnandTech, so they are pretty respected when it comes to PC hardware:

 

The only scenario that it would be cooler is when the second 970M is on low power mode. Considering full throtttle they will certainly get hotter than a single 980M.

Got word from Gigabyte today that the P37X have three SATA 6Gb/s and one SATA 3Gb/s.
So, the four RAID 0 is a myth (considering you don't want to have the forth drive on the swappable bay/running slower).

 

XoticPC has it listed now. They have it with a 256gb mSata and 16gb of RAM for $2500. $500 seems like way too much for those two improvements. So far, it looks like I'll be buying the base model and putting in 2 256gb mSata drives myself and upgrading the RAM to 16gb. Even with the extra 256gb drive, I should come in below their silly $2500 figure. I don't know who over at Gigabyte is coming up with their pricing, but they need to be replaced.

http://www.xoticpc.com/gigabyte-p37xcf2-p-7981.html

 

Well, after looking at those prices, I'm glad I ordered the Aorus instead. I should be getting mine from XoticPC on Monday.

With the price being only $100 cheaper, I don't see the value. Compared to the Aorus X7 Pro:
Cons:
- uses 1600 mhz Ram instead of 1866mhz
- has one 256 gb SSD drive instead of 2 in the Aorus
- has one 980m vs 2 970m in SLI
- it uses a TN panel vs the IPS one in the Aorus (if they follow P35x)

Pros:
- has optical drive than can be swapped out for extra HDD or left out to make lighter
- could potentially run cooler or quieter because of one GPU
- has one 980m vs 2 970m in SLI

It seems like a toss up on which of the two you may prefer. Since I wanted a powerful customizable laptop, I went with the Aorus. It seems to have more value for the components than the P37x.

But if you really want to customize the look of your system, XoticPC has way more options to paint, etch, wrap or color/light your keyboard with the P37x. You can only etch with the Aorus and I really wanted to paint it.

One more thing, all that to say I think Gigabyte is charging too much for the system. They should look at the GS70 for pricing and charge a slight premium for the 980m. Unless that is the premium for the 980m...

 

I agree with almost everything you said. The only Pro you left off was battery life. The single GPU laptop should get much better battery life. I feel like I'm constantly changing my mind, but right now I'm leaning toward just getting the P37W with the 970m. Xotic has it with 16gb of RAM and a single 256gb mSATA for $1900. I'll probably throw a second 256gb mSATA in it and a 2TB HDD and call it good until the DX12 cards start coming out. Hopefully then there will be something with M.2 SSD's and USB type-C.

Oh, also it seems the P37's will have IPS displays like the X7 Pro.

 

The P37X sold in the UK have two 128GB mSATA.
There's only two mSATA slots in the P37X against three in the Aorus X7 Pro.
The fourth SATA slot (swappable bay) is 3Gb/s.

 

Oops, forgot about the battery life. You are correct, it should be much better with only one GPU. And I would say the same about changing my mind all the time. I kept going back and forth for a while before going with the Aorus X7 Pro. I was going to wait for the P37x, but decided to stop waiting since I didn't know when it was coming out. Of course a week later...

And I would normally say you should get the 980m one, so that your laptop lasts longer, but if you are holding out til the DX12 based systems come out, that your choice would be the best bet.

 

BTW, all GTX 900 series are DirectX 12 compatible. It's merely an API modification.

 

Does anyone know if it's going to have a UHD version?

 

Doubtful. I don't think any panel manufacturer is making a 17" laptop display at anything greater than 1080p yet.

 

That would be a shame, gtx 980m with 8 GB VRAM should be able to handle 4K .......

 

I talked to XoticPC yesterday and they said if you want a P37w or P37x it should be a normal 9-16 day wait at this point. I'm still going to wait on reviews of the two units to come out before I make a decision.

 

I had to delete a lot of posts in here. Take it to PM if you want to argue.

 

Reviews are starting to trickle in here:

Tech Radar: http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews...ops-and-netbooks/gigabyte-p37x-1279757/review

HardwareLuxx (German): http://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.ph...7x-im-test-extrem-flacher-high-end-gamer.html

 

The video linked above said the 37X had an IPS screen, and I know the screen in the P35X is an IPS screen (FHD). Have you found something that says otherwise?

 

The reviews thus far have noted that the p37x has an IPS screen:

From TechRadar:

 

Not good when it comes to fan noise, now I know gaming laptops tend to be loud but this is getting ridiculous across all Gigabyte models, performance is fantastic but ruined,a great laptop with annoying bad fan profiles.
C'mon Gigabyte you have to improve the fans to really have an amazing laptop.

 

If the noise is stressing you up better return the product.
Stress will build up and eventually anyone will give up and destroy the source of noise.
I had an X7 Pro and the only way I've found to bear with the noise was do underclock it so the Fan Control could be set to Stealth (minimum noise) mode.
You can also try good headphones but I just can't take them all the time.
Indeed they must come up with something really silent next time and the only way I know to make them do it is not buying this loud junk they are selling now.

 

Blaming Gigabyte here is like blaming BMW because their cars don't fly.

The reality here is that at the current state of technology, no manufacturer (MSI, ASUS, Acer, Alienware, etc.) has created a thin laptop with the top of the line CPU/GPU that is quiet. The TDP requirements are simply too high for a thin and light design to accomplish (there are not going to be significant advances in the kind of cooling fan designs offer). The bottom line is that thin designs require small fans, fans are loud when they spin fast, and small fans need to spin fast to generate airflow necessary to cool high TDPs.

The fact that the fans are loud on thin laptops like the P37X should be disclosed in reviews, however they should be taken into proper context. If fan noise is not your thing, stepping up from a 6 lb laptop to a much thicker 8.5 lb ASUS g751 solves the problem quite nicely, but there is the obvious tradeoff of a heavier, thicker laptop and so it will boil down to personal preferences and what tradeoffs a person is willing to make to suit those.

The situation will improve over time as both GPUs and CPUs get more efficient, lowering the TDP to a point where small fans can spin slower...

 

Your car analogy makes absolutely no sense.
Given that they are slightly thicker and weigh slightly more(barely) Clevo/Sager makes thin and lite laptops that are pretty darn close that offer much better cooling and much less fan noise.
Now I'm not trying to say the P37X doesn't do a lot right(it does) but you have to admit cooling and fan noise are not one of them, every review I've read so far has mentioned how terrible the fan profiles are and point out specifically that it impacts how it's rated. Temps are also above average even for thin and lite models.
I get that thin laptops run hotter and louder than you regular "gaming" laptops but the least they could have done is add more air vents on the bottom to help keep temps lower which would translate to less aggressive fan profiles.
I mean just look at how tiny the bottom vents are to draw in cool air, seems very restrictive.
Adding more vents would help a great deal in my opinion.

 

Adding more vents could also create more turbulence, which would also hinder cooling. You can't just create a bunch of vents and expect it to be cooler. To keep things cool, you actually have to control the airflow by getting the cool air in quickly and the hot air out quickly. It's not necessarily simply a matter of volume. Looking at that picture you posted, though, it looks like there's actually a lot of vents to me. Other thin gaming laptops don't have that many. Here's the bottom of a GS70:


I agree that they need to continue to work on it, but I don't necessarily feel like they dropped the ball. Nobody else is putting a 980m in a slim laptop and that is obviously going to create more heat all by itself. It seems to me they've done a good job keeping temps down too, if we can trust the TechRadar numbers. They only got the GPU to 72 during the Unigen Heaven test, which is very reasonable. NotebookCheck had the GS70 between 90 and 100 on the GS70 during the stress test. You could possibly set the fans on the "Auto-Low" setting and let the temps creep higher and have a nice compromise. I'll likely wait until Notebookcheck reviews one before I really trust the numbers, though.

Which Sager models are "barely" thicker than the Gigabyte? I haven't seen any that are less than an inch thick.

 

I think this is a good example of what I was getting at. There are tradeoffs with thinness and thermal capacity, and each notebook in the 17" category is somewhere along that tradeoff curve, and no one laptop is " Pareto Superior" to any other (for a given set of constraints, it is still superior than others).

Based on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A0LiCTs3MTI-4ptvZufLTWGLuyfdlL0j97sdUpUMHjQ/edit?usp=sharing

It seems that the thinnest 17" Clevo/Sager is the P670SG/P671SG, which has a thickness of 1.18". This is 32.58% thicker than the 0.89" P37x, and it is 18.49% heavier (a pound heavier). To you, this may be within your acceptable bounds of thickness, but over 30% thicker is not trivial and you can't say that Clevo has proven that good cooling with top of the line CPU/GPU at the thinnest laptop possible can be done. This increase in thickness and weight may be more of a preference to others if not to you.

I admit haven't exhaustively looked at the thin and light high-end gaming field, but from what I've seen, the players here are really only:

• MSI GS70 Stealth Pro (970m)
• Razer Blade Pro (older hardware)
• Gigabyte P37X (980m)
• Aorus x7 (970m SLI)

These are all within a 0.1-0.4" of another and are suitable for comparison. From the reviews I've seen of these laptops, the kind of heat and fan noise have been comparable, or in other words, there is no one manufacturer that has conclusively shown that they can cool better than the others (and that there is some engineering solution that the others have missed).

Other laptops with better cooling in the reviews benefit from thicker and heavier chassis. So as far as I can see, there is no laptop that has shown it can be done better given the same constraints (though I'd love to hear that I'm wrong here).

 

Just got my P37X today, ran a few preliminary tests for those of us interested in some data around fan noise and temperatures, especially compared to the P35X.

I ran Prime95/Furmark for around 20 minutes to get these results.

Max Temp GPU: ~80C
Max Temp CPU: 95C (Only 1 core reached 95, others ~92)
Max Fan Center Keyboard: 56dB
CPU throttled back to 2.31ghz at the above.

If I left the fan on the default profile (Automatic - Low), the noise at the center of the keyboard was ~50dB, which I found completely usable. This caused the CPU to scale back to 2.1ghz.

Note this is completely stock, not repasted.

 

New review from Pocket-Lint:

 

Thanks for the info! Seems it has pretty similar temperatures (though GPU seems cooler) and noise compared to the GS70, despite having a better GPU (980m vs 970m). I'm leaning toward the P37w, so I'd think that would do slightly better on temps. How are you liking everything else about it? It seems the only real complaint the two reviews have had so far are the trackpad, but I don't really use trackpads all that much anyway. It would be nice to get some OSX-esque touchpad gestures, but Windows 10 looks to be bringing that natively. Looking good so far!