Gigabyte U2442 Line

My response to the same post on the the Gigabyte "review" thread:

Bet you $5 it weighs ~6lbs and costs >$1600.

EDIT: Sorry, I try to avoid being a jerk-at-heart BUT I am a bit pessimistic when it comes to technology news plus I have a minor allergy to double-posts!

-Matt

 

Ok, now you have me worried. No way to actually secure the drive in the chassis and none of the drives you've tried will even recognize? Ugh. I ordered a second SSD (Plextor) which should show up Monday.. fingers crossed I have better luck.

If I can't get my add-on SSD to work, I'll probably sell the 2442N and wait for something else. Has anyone else successfully added a second drive to a 2442N which didn't originally ship with one?

 

obviously....if i had a secret wish asus to launch such a device with same formfactor of g75 and slim sexyness, am sure others hv too... remember the asus zenbook u500vz with a quad core and gt650m gddr5, ips screen?? i hope ths lappy will be that good or even better!

 

I installed a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD. It was immediately recognized in BIOS. You won't see it in Windows 7 until you format it (which I had to Google, first time with 7). Also, your BIOS needs to be setup for AHCI.


Serial ATA Port 0 - Samsung SSD 83 (256.0) supported

 

Ah, whew! Good to hear.

I opened up the chassis last night in anticipation of my drive showing up today. Those little screw plugs were really easy to remove, you just need some small tweezers to pop them out.

I see what you mean about the drive not being secure, although there are some plastic retainers which should keep the drive from flying around. Also, I'm going to try to use the little foam blocks that were sitting in the unused drive bay to try and bracket my new drive in a bit tighter.

I took a few pics while I had it open, which I'll attach later. Any requests before I button it up tonight?

 

Any word on before/after temps? (and no, i dont see any way to screw down a 2.5" drive...)

 

I also installed a Scorpio Black 7400rpm 500gb and applied some Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU and the GPU. My machine recognized the new drive right away, and yeah, you do have to format the driver before it could work. I found this out when building my desktop this summer.

Unfortunately, I only applied the Arctic Silver 5 just for fun and didn't record the before temp so I can't really give any numbers on the before/after temps.

My only concern is that even with the shock absorbance thinggie, I can feel my new HDD vibrating a little when I rest my right hand on the pad when typing, and it does gets quite warm, too. The HDD is warmer than the whole notebook actually. It's still formatting so hopefully it'll cool down a little after it's done.

Finally, here are some photos for your enjoyment. I apologize for the bad images, I'm not much of a camera guy.
Photo Album - Imgur

Edit: All is better, after the format, the driver stops vibrating and cools down, I can't feel it anymore.

 

Got my SSD and new RAM in today. Popped in the 2x 8GB chips and the system booted with 16GB of happy goodness the first time.

Laid the SSD (Plextor M3-512GB) down against the against plastic drive retainer, connected the single cable and squeezed in a few of the foam blocks which had been previously stuck in as space holders in the drive bay. They can be popped in on the left side and top of the drive, just press the case a bit when reapplying the screws and things tighten up nice and snug.

The 2442N's BIOS and Win7 recognized the drive right away and after formatting it's all good to go. Zero noticeable heat or rattling. Oodles of RAM and oodles of drive space should last a while.

Looks like I'll be keeping this laptop, after all... just really, really, really, really, really wish we could get some fan controls; these fans run faster and way more often than they should.

 

Be nice if Amazon had model with hybrid drive available to ship in the US. This seems to be the slowest rollout ever, I wonder if Gigabyte is just trickling production so can align stock with Windows 8 preinstalled to ride any anticipated hype and jump in sales.

 

Hey guys. I just wanted to post to inform everyone a little bit more about the U2442V (Ultra low voltage i7 version)

First and foremost, this laptop is INCREDIBLE. I am a hardcore computer user and a professional computer technician.

I use this laptop for gaming, web browsing, office tasks, photoshop, movie streaming.

As far as the fan noise issues everyone is talking about, that appears to only be an issue with the U2442(N), not the (V).
That is totally to be expected as the N is a normal voltage mobile i5 which means it's going to get hot.

The i7 in this thing can get extremely hot as well, especially if you turn on the "smart cooling" feature. However, the fan almost never turns on, or at least it doesn't turn on at an audible level unless the nVidia GPU kicks in during gaming. I keep "smart cooling" disabled which means it uses the fans more often, and I almost never hear the fans turn on. The temps on average stay around 60-75c. During heavy 1080p internet streaming the temps can reach the 90's. However, if I'm gaming, the nVidia GPU kicks in along with the fans and the temps generally start to drop.

Battery life is usually around 4-5 hours on power saver mode while using internet (browsing and gchat) along with typing notes in word (which is awesome). I also have a 5400 rmp WD Scorpio blue 1TB hard drive installed and access constantly while taking notes (which obviously uses more battery than only having the SSD)

As far as benchmarks go, I ran 3D Mark Vantage and scored 7205 with a CPU score of 9455 and a GPU score of 6676. That's pretty damn impressive for an ultrabook, especially since the battery life, weight, and slimness is so incredible.

Now I'll go on to list some negatives about the laptop. But keep in mind, despite these negatives, I still think this is the best laptop available for people who want a solid "
do everything well" laptop.

1) Probably the most annoying thing is (and this might just be a defective unit) when I have the backlit keyboard lights on, the lights flick off and back on 50% of the time when I hit the space bar while typing. Along with the keyboard backlights flashing off and back on when I hit the space key, it makes a slightly audible buzz sound. I think it may just be a problem with my particular laptop though. If anyone else has this issue, please post up or message me.

2) The trackpad works really well and feels great during normal use. However, I find that if every time I type, then use the trackpad, then type, then use the trackpad again, there is a 1 second delay in the trackpad working. This might be an intentional feature to prevent you from accidentally moving the pointer when you switch to typing, but if you quickly switch between typing and moving the mouse often, it can be frustrating to have to wait 1 second to use the mouse. This also causes problems with SHIFT+CLICK highlighting. Like if you have 20 folders, and you want to select folders 5-15, if you click folder 5, then hold shift and click on 15 to select all the folders in between, it tends to have a lot of trouble doing that.

3) When storing the laptop in the protective case it comes with in my backpack, the screen tends to get pressed up against the plastic bezel right below the space bar. This leaves a visible mark on the screen. Luckily, it can be wiped off. My solution to this is to rest the microfiber screen cleaning cloth it came with on top of the keyboard before packing it away. This creates a soft cushion that prevents the screen from getting pressed up against the bezel.

4) If you leave smart cooling active, and you do something processor heavy like stream a 1080p video on Chrome or Internet Explorer, the processor can get dangerously hot because the fans just won't turn on unless you're using the nVidia gpu. This is easily solved by turning smart cooling off. (even with smart cooling off, you can't hear the fans with the u2442V.

In sum, despite the glitches I listed, this laptop is the best laptop i've ever touched, and I'm thrilled with it.
I play Mass Effect 3 on it while having it plugged into my 1080p TV through the HDMI port and I run the game on max graphics at 1920x1080 resolution and it runs it smooth as butter! Couldn't ask for more from a laptop this light/slim/quiet.

 

IPS Display
Decent Speakers
A way to mount the 2.5" HDD.

Then it would be almost great.

Gigabyte replied to my support ticket about not recognizing my HDD - they said use one on their list.. It definitely is an issue with my motherboard (a hardware fault).

 

Thanks for the info! Really appreciate it.

I am definitely leaning towards the 2442V after reading about the fans.

 

I added a 1TB WD Scorpio Blue drive and I had no issue with the mounting or recognition of the drive. It fit perfectly snug, and you can even use the rubber pads that took the spot before to create your own surrounding padding.

As far as speakers go, even if the speakers were twice as powerful, would they really be "good enough"? I don't think so. You can't expect a laptop this small, and this jam packed with hardware in such a tight space, to have GOOD speakers. Good speakers have a physical requirement of space, and it just isn't reasonable to expect a laptop this small to have speakers that you would be happy using for gaming or movies. It does however come with a very good sound card, and by simply plugging in a good set of headphones or speakers, you can get awesome sound.

As far as an "ips" display, I'm perfectly good with a 1600x900 display on a 14 inch screen, and when I want to do some serious gaming, or movie watching, I plug my 40 inch 1080p tv into the full size HDMI port and I'm ready to go. I would rather pay ~$200 less and have a great 1600x900 screen than blow my money on a 14 inch ips screen that I still wouldn't use over my TV through HDMI.

 

Has anyone run 3D mark Vantage or 3D mark 11 on the U2442N yet? If so, can you please post a link to your scores, or type them here? I'm really curious how the V and N compare.
My i7 is rated at 1.9 Ghz with turbo up to 3.0, and I usually see it running at 2.85 ghz any time it's under load. So I would think performance would be really similar. Actually I think due to thermal limitations, the i7 may actually out perform the i5 simply because the i5 would throttle if it ran under load for a while so seeing some benchmark results would be great.

Also, is anyone having this keyboard backlight issue with their u2442? (Pressing space causes backlight to flicker half the time)

 

I'll run it when I get home tonight, although I used one of the BIOS tweaks mentioned earlier to overclock my 640M, so the results could be skewed. Also, I'm pretty sure there was testing done earlier in this thread (or maybe in the 2442N review thread?) which revealed the full voltage i5 doesn't throttle at all due to strength of the cooling system.

You've got me curious about the whole smart cooling thing, too. I'm gonna mess with that a bit and see if that setting can cut down on fan over-use. I hate listening to those things spin up just because I launched a freaking web browser.

I have zero issues with backlight flicker or any other backlight woes on my 2442N, for what it's worth. I'm betting faulty hardware or a loose connection in your unit.

 

Yeah my guess is hardware issue for the backlighting. I'm going to have it replaced through Dynamism.

As far as the fan noise goes, definitely try turning smart cooling ON. But keep in mind your cpu can get HOT AS HELL that way. Make SURE you have a temp program running like CoreTemp to monitor temps while you do things. the tjMAX on our processors is 105c. So if you're getting over 100, set smart cooling back to "off."

The i7 almost NEVER uses the fan to cool off, or at least not audibly.
The exception being when the nVidia chip is activated.

 

Interesting. I just downloaded and installed 3DMark Vantage on my 2442N. The end result was P6438 3DMarks with a graphics score of 6464 and a CPU score of 6360.

With respect to temps, the CPU peaked at 71c (max clock @ 3093Mhz and the GPU peaked at 65c (max clock 998Mhz w/900Mhz ram clock). For reference, the temperature in here is probably around 22-23c.

I'm not too surprised by the CPU score being so different, as the extra cache in the i7 chip is generally very benchmark-friendly. However, I am surprised my graphics score came in lower, given that I've overclocked my 640M. Makes me wonder if my overclock isn't working, although each monitor I've used (GPU-Z and Open Hardware Monitor) both agree the GPU is peaking near 1Ghz). Weird, no?

Update: Here's an image from OHM showing the clocks and a few runs w/temps.

 

Yeah, you know what, I tried overclocking my GPU by 75 mhz using nVidia's control panel and it made almost no difference at all. It didn't even result in 1 fps difference in average frame rate in 3D mark vantage. I'll try increases the memory clock a bit more and see if that helps. From my experience overclocking a geforce gt 440 and 520 gt, I noticed much bigger gains by increases memory clock than processor clock on the gpu.

 

I just got 7400 3D mark vantage by overclocking the GPU to 430/950 and had an air conditioner blowing cold air at the bottom of the laptop.
Here's the link. NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3517U CPU @ 1.90GHz,GIGABYTE U2442 score: P7393 3DMarks

Though at that overclock, there was some noticeable graphical glitches.

 

It appears 430 graphics clock, 940 memory clock is the sweet spot. No graphical glitches.

 

You should get higher(especially with the 1000MHz core) than that, I think.

Here's mine(GT640M LE) on 1000 core 1150 memory :
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz,Sony Corporation VAIO score: P8675 3DMarks
8084 on graphics.
Unless the Memory(900Mhz) is bottlenecking it a lot.

 

Seems like it, yeah. Would love it if someone else on this forum with a 2442N could run 3dMark Vantage so we could get another point of reference...

 

New BIOS firmware available (F0C). They added an option to turn off the nVidia GPU it seems.

Anyone noticed that (independant from the above firmware) the nVidia GPU seems to not being used when running on battery. I have all Windows 7 power energy settings on high speed. The nVidia control panel doesnt have an option to control Optimus. I observed this with Crysis 2. When it runs on battery FPS are very slow (not playable on 1600x900, DX11, HiRes textures and everything on Ultra). As soon as I connect it to A/C it's running smoothly, no lag, no low FPS.

Any idea if there's a way to get maximum speed while running on battery?


There's also a new version of the SmartManager (v3 2.3.8).
And a lot of driver updates you won't get from Gigabyte. I tested them all and they work perfectly.
- nVidia ForceWare graphics driver (notebook version with support for Optimus) 306.23 (WHQL certified)
- nVidia 3D Vision driver 306.23
- nVidia PhysX 9.12.0613

- Realtek Ethernet Controller Driver 7.61.612.2012
- Realtek High Definition Audio Driver 6.0.1.6662 (R2.70)
- Realtek USB 2.0 Card Reader 6.1.7600.30126

- a hard to find Intel driver package called "55982_win8_64_1528"
(I cant remember how I managed to get it, you won't find this on Intel's download site, it is the only package to include a very important Intel Display audio driver to get rid of the "no sound from speakers after hibernation" issue which I had myself, after googling I learnt this is a driver issue)
Even though the name suggests it would be for Windows 8 64 bit only, the ReadMe.txt says it's also for Windows 7 64 bit:
Microsoft Windows* 7 64
Microsoft Windows* 8 64
Driver Revision: 15.28.64.2792
July 9, 2012)

- Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible-Hostcontroller 1.0.5.235
(I found this very imporant, as the pre-installed version can cause the system to reboot and after that the USB 3.0 ports don't work because driver is corrupt, the new version works perfectly, I also read that Intel's Panther chipset is not working correctly on early driver versions)
- Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 15.2.0.19
- Intel PROSet/Wireless Software for Bluetooth Technology 2.2.0.0266

 

Any other recommendations on where to buy a u2442v? I placed an order with Amazon as a failsafe but they are saying 1-4 months wait :/

 

Yeah I'm about to punt and get a Sony as well after I saw the new Amazon availability, I was willing to wait a month or two but this is getting ridiculous. I really don't want to touch ExcaliberPC after reading the other user's experience having to return bad hardware.

Kinda sucks, they spent the time and money to make what seems like a good product that people want then can't figure out how to distribute it.

 

I really liked the s13 but I keep hearing about the fan noise/volume and heat problems.

This u2442 with the ULV i7 just seems so perfect all-around... damn

 

I think maybe since I've come this far I'll wait until Windows 8 release and see if they've been engaged in some sort of hold-back so can ship that preinstalled. Then if not it'll be 4th and 10 with punter trotting in.

 

Korgnex, do you mind sharing these files with us? I'm having a hard time tracking them all down...

 

Anyone running W8? How's the driver support?

 

Yes I think at this rate I'm going to wait for a W8 release too.

 

Quick note on this... I just updated mny 2442N with most of the drivers referenced a few posts back by Korgnex. This had the effect of re-setting my overclocked GPU settings back to default and apparently cleared out something else which had been holding my system back because I just re-ran the PCMark Vantage benchmark and got considerably better numbers!

P7138 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE - 6602
CPU SCORE - 9436

This is definitely what I would expect from the 2442N, which should have more CPU grunt than the 2442v. I'll I have to do now is spend a little time finding the right overclock settings for the GPU and this puppy should be a-rockin. Plenty of heat headroom, too... still didnt see over 75c on the CPU or 62c on the GPU.

 

I'm not sure the N is supposed to have "more cpu grunt" than the V.

My U2442V results
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3517U CPU @ 1.90GHz,GIGABYTE U2442 score: P7393 3DMarks

P7393 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE 6840
CPU SCORE 9760

More L3 Cache and roughly the same top speeds (in turbo) has a pretty solid impact.

The i5 low end is 2.5 while the i7 low end is 1.9. However, your MAX under turbo is 3.1 Ghz, while the V's max is 3.0. So ultimately, at load, and temperatures permitting, there is only a 100mhz difference. My processor (i7) runs at 700mhz or so while not really in use, and shoots up to 2900mhz when I tell it to do something.

 

Received my U2442N last week. Quite happy with it.

Just one question for the other U2442N/V owners: do you also notice the screen-door effect ( Screen-door effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)?

 

Is there any word about the supposed alternative model (with a GT650M) that was going to be released?

 

I asked Gigabyte about it in late August. At that time, they confirmed the development team was testing a DDR3 GT650. I encouraged them to experiment with a DDR5 version, and they thanked me for the suggestion and ensured me they would pass it along to the development team. Based on exactly nothing, I expect to see a GT650 sometime in November or December, and I would guess it will be a DDR3 model.

 

Anyone got a clue how we get manual fan control for these things? Or should I just stop wishing it'll magically show up some day as a hack? At this point, I'd be 100% satisfied with this laptop if it wasn't for the fans.

 

try turning on smart cooling

 

Tried it on and tried it off. Tried different power profile. No difference either way that I can see.

Really annoying that the fans spin up when browsing a web page or loading a document. The thresholds under which the fans are currently set to trigger are far, far too low... as low as 55C they stay on constantly, and peak quickly with any increase after that.

 

I'm guessing you have the U2442N? If it is a deal breaker for you, return it and get the U2442V. Zero fan issues. It is almost always dead silent. You'll also get better battery life and better performance.

 

Wish I could - but I was an early adopter and bought from ExcaliberPC. Their horrendous return policy pretty much negates that option.

I'm going to crack the 2442N open again later this week and apply some AS5 (or similar) in the hope that calms the fans down a bit, at least for idle/browsing situations. Still, I know that's just a bandaid fix... we're going to need a BIOS update or some 3rd party fan controls to really fix this problem.

Suddenly the U500 is looking interesting again. Meh!

 

If only it didn't get so hot

 

Or cost close to $2000, I had been holding off on the u2442 for more info on the u500, but all good things come with a price eh

 

I'd like to get the U2442 but any news of the new version with Windows 8?

 

They showed up on Excaliberpc but they are gone now.
CF-1 is windows 7 version
CF-2 is windows 8 version
Try googling U2442N-CF2

 

Yeah. Thats what i saw as well. Tried to google it but not much information with regards to the launch date of those with Windows 8.

 

ive had my U2442V a while now and overall I am very happy with it - im running Windows 8 x64 on it.
minor issues are:
1. Fan runs a bit too much
2. power button is in a stupid spot - I turn it off by accident every now and then
3. when coming out of suspend or sometimes on boot the webcam/mic does not work - so to get it working i have to go into the smart manager and disable it and then re-enable - assume this will be fixed when 8 is live (hopefully)
4.touchpad sometimes doesnt respond straight away

fyi driver support seems fine

 

Note that Dynamism and Excaliberpc both list a CF2 model with the GT 650M, available for preorders

Gigabyte U2442F-CF1 14" Ultrabook. Gigabyte U2442F-CF1

 

Are you sure? I do see the CF2 model @ Excaliber but I don't see the 650M listed anywhere.

 

I'm sure everybody is already aware but remember that EXcaliberPC doesn't have the most flexible return/repair policies:

Frequently Asked Questions | EXcaliberPC.com

-Matt

 

The one I linked seem to be listed as CF1, but the description at the top says "NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 2GB Graphics Card" and matches the same price point as Dynanism. My guess is the product page got copied and not all update-to-date.