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    Gigabyte p34 vs sager w230t

    Discussion in 'Gigabyte and Aorus' started by jeep364, Feb 20, 2014.

  1. jeep364

    jeep364 Notebook Consultant

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    Hi, my m11x r2 is getting long in the tooth and it seems that gigabyte has finally produced a laptop I am excited about. Couple questions below...

    1. Expected battery life - I am not worried about having 4 hours of heavy usage, but can this laptop put out 3 hours of light internet browsing (and youtube) with medium screen backlighting? I know the intel 4600 can handle it. When i play games it will be plugged in.

    2. I am very happy with the powerful gpu, the main game i play is civ 5 which my 335m gt in the m11x plays fine on lower-med settings but lately has begun to overheat and shut down at late game intensity... even after i cleaned it out. I assume this gpu will play most future games (I keep computers a long time before retiring them) and med-low settings...star citizen anyone? (that game seems like it will require another couple gens of laptop gpu's before its playable on a midsize laptop).

    3. the fan fix in bios works correctly? that seemed to be the main issue when it came out for light browsing having a full fan kick on

    4. Big one here...multi touch on the touchpad? three finger swipe front/back, two finger right click. do these work well? anything has to be better than my m11x (i came from a macbook pro 2007/8 - so i hope this new one can match that)

    5. I am looking at purchasing from xotic pc with cash discount and military if they honor both. any suggested upgrades? is the stock wireless card fine? I may go for the 7200rpm 750gb drive, does that void gigabyte's warranty? if they have to replace a different component will they mess with my hard drive since it would be non-standard.


    VS Clevo w230t - only advantages I see for the sager n7330 (i always get them confused)

    1. price difference - it is ~$300 cheaper
    2. It has dedicated home/pageup/down/end buttons - but that point is less important to me if the multi touch works great on the gigabyte.
    3. 765m gt - not too worried about the ~10% gpu advantage
    4. Any other thoughts here? - sager is a lot thicker...as thick as my m11x
     
  2. tomsliwowski

    tomsliwowski Notebook Guru

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    I'll try to answer some of the questions from my own limited experience (I bought the P34G 2 weeks ago and have used it sporadically)

    1) The few times I've used it on battery only I've had the time estimate be anywhere from 5 to 4 hours of use. 5 hours with the screen at ~40% and keyboard backlight off doing some web browsing. 4 hours with the screen at 60% and watching flash videos.

    2) The GPU is quite good for today's games (I'm amazed that Battlefied 4 and Titanfall work with most eye candy turned on). As for future games, I would expect it to be more than adequate for several years as long as you set the post processing stuff to medium levels to compensate for the fact that you'll be X generations behind. Personally I've found that medium setting in most games work on even VERY old GPUs.

    3) Before applying the 305 update, the only thing I did was update from windows 8.0 to 8.1so the fans were on full blast. With 305, it seems that the fans are usually off but they do kick in at random times. It doesn't really bother me and I doubt you would notice it if you are in a moderately noisy area.

    4) My laptop is at home so I can't really test the multitouch stuff right now but I do know that scrolling with 2 fingers works well but I can't really speak more about that until I get to test it tonight.

    5) I got my laptop from Newegg mostly because I am an impatient person and wanted the laptop as soon as possible. I don't know if the prices they're charging for these upgrades are actually worth it. You could just do them yourself when the laptop comes in as pretty much every component is super easy to replace. I replaced the stock wifi with an AC card from the same Intel 7260 family with no issues and without removing any warranty stickers so I doubt you'll have an issue with Gigabyte if you ever have to send it in.

    You asked about the stock wifi card being good or not. I changed it out because I wanted a 5GHz capable card but if you don't care about that, it should be sufficient. Some people have run into issues with the 7260 series of cards (me included) but that seems to be more of a drivers + windows thing rather than an actual issue with the laptop.

    As for how the P34G compares with the Clevo/Sager laptops. Since I was in the market for a new laptop I did look into the w230t/n7330 and decided against it for a couple of reasons.

    The major one being heat; I read a bunch of posts on several websites about managing heat and there were MANY undervolting threads aimed at heat control. I don't know about you, but if I buy a product that's about $1k or more, I expect not to have to mess around with workarounds to get it to work in its default mode.

    The other thing that I didn't like is how big and clunky the Clevo/Sager is especially when you look at the P34G. I wanted something that looks nice and performs well and frankly the P34G is the nicest laptop I could find that can still play anything I throw at it now and in the foreseeable future.
     
  3. jeep364

    jeep364 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks so much for the info!

    Please keep me posted on the touch pad.
     
  4. tomsliwowski

    tomsliwowski Notebook Guru

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    I just tested 3-finger swiping and it works pretty well. The two finger right click does not, however. I suspect that's because the touchpad on the unibody macs is one giant button which you click with both fingers on while the P34G is a standard PC touchpad with a button below it.
     
  5. Reizenn

    Reizenn Notebook Guru

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    I'm considering of getting either of the 2 laptops aswell. Which do you think has the better build quality/sturdiness between the two? thanks!!
     
  6. nemt

    nemt Notebook Deity

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    The Clevo/Sager is a big, loud, clunky, poorly made piece of junk. It was on my short list too at first, but everything about it screams budget device (except the price).