NEW Gigabyte P34 V2

Alternate.de had it in stock Saturday, I guess the demand was pretty high... Sunday morning it was sold out.

 

Missed it a day, what a bummer. No they even do not know when it will be available again.
Oh well, seems I just have to wait. Thanks for the quick reply!

 

What version HDMI port does this unit have? Anyone using an external QWHD monitor (2560x1440) with this laptop via HDMI?

 

Super informative response from Gigabyte regarding model with larger battery!
My question:
Hi there, I can't find any information regarding release dates for P34G V2 with the extended (larger 64wh) battery option in the UK. Could you please advise when this might become available? The base model appears to be available for pre-order now, but not the larger battery. Also, will this have a particular model suffix (e.g. CF-4 etc...?) that I should be looking out for? Thank in advance5/30/2014 10:33 PM
Answer:

Dear Siperiea,

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. We appreciate you concern about our product. Since our products are distributed by the resellers and local distributors, the models release will accord to the sale plan of local distributor. The product specifications and product appearance may differ from country to country. We recommend that you check with your local retailers for the specifications and appearance of the products available in your country.

Note: The correct notebook model name is P34G v2. For the new models, we suggest you check our website for the latest news later.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

Oh well...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

ROFL you had my hopes up so high in the beginning then slammed them down like a Lebron James dunk

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Thermal video has finally finished uploading. Here it is
Took a long time to make, edit and it has been uploading for 2 days straight (Slow internet )

 

Likely to be answered by some clerks in the office who know nothing about computers (or even be bothered to read the entire email).

 

Gents,

I'm considering to buying this laptop for 3-4 years and investing into it 2200 USD.
This goes for 16 RAM, 1 GB SSD, dead pixel warranty and some miscellaneous stuff.

Dear Owners, how do you think, whether it worth investment in it in terms of build quality?
I just don't want to appear in situation where you have return it in a year.
Thank you.

 

To be honest if your going to invest that much I would wait for the newly announced Asus NX500 or GX500 depending on preference

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone who has the laptop with a 47,73Wh battery option could test the battery life in power saving mode with minimum screen brightness. I was willing to get a 63,64Wh battery option, but I'm afraid there wouldn't be such a choice on the market in my area. Therefore I would appreciate if anyone could measure the lifetime of a smaller battery and tell how long it lasts.

 

Sebi, were the temps you show before and after repasting with the auto fan (and therefore as often reported 2nd highest fan speed?) or with the max fan speed?

What was causing your low fps what you were reporting at 22:46 and that you had to re-set something in Afterburner?
I think you are going to make another video on that as well, but to anticipate, what were your OC settings? stock voltage or overvolted?

Thanks and can't wait for your stock vs. OC measures!

 

47,73Wh battery
Scenario 1) Win8.1 power saving mode, WLAN on, 50% screen brightness, 100% keyboard LED, Office Word, Mozilla Firefox = about 2,75-3 hours
Scenario 2) Win8.1 power saving mode, WLAN off, min. screen brightness, keyboard LED off = about 4-4.5 hours

 

So are you saying that you would not recommend it now? I ask because I am getting close to purchasing. I need it to last 3 years or so. Honestly, I can deal with the paint wearing on the chassis. I just don't want the thing to get all loose and feel like a piece of garbage.

 

My P34Gv2 received yesterday, my first impression was "WOW", I did not expect such nice build-quality. The display is amazing, the keyboard has a really nice "pressure point", little flex is present but it is much better than expected. The top and the placement area for the hands are made of aluminium, seeming really noble to me. The touchpad is really good for a windows notebook, of course you can not compare it with an macbook, but it is okay. win8.1 gestures are working smoothly without any delays, but nevertheless it feels a bit imprecise or spongy. The clickpad looks like it would lose build quality by intensive use. The frame joints are looking a bit cheap, but they do their job, hopefully for more than just 3 years. The AC Adapter is bulky -.- I'm thinking of getting an alternative AC Adapter like CODIs Universal AC Adapter which is really light and thin. Overall the notebook is really light, has a great size and is the perfect partner for students who want a mobile machine which has enough power to play games! To add another important point, this notebook is serviceable by yourself! The HDD is a bit slow, I will upgrade my P34Gv2 with a msata in near future, providing that I stay with it.

(47Wh) batterylife is a big issue, if you switch the powersaving mode on, turn the WLAN and keyboard LED off and decrease the screen brightness to a minimum by using non intensive programs you can expect 4-4,5 hourse of batterylife. With 50% screen brightness, WLAN on, keyboard LED 100% and in powersavingmode after 2hours and 50minutes you run out of battery. For me it is okay, in class I got my Ipad and at my university neary all rooms got enough plug sockets. Maybe there will be the chance of replacing the 47Wh with the 63Wh battery by yourself, if someone seek a possible dealer in the internet.

The only thing that bothers me is fan noise, Gigabyte provide a Tool called SmartManager where you can configure your fan behaviour and several other useful things like brightness, Touchpad, WLAN, keyboard settings etc... I thought with the stealth mode the fan is completely off and yes, the fan is completely off, but it jumps on every 2 minutes for about 20-25 seconds. it is definitely not as bad as the fan noise of the MSI GS60, but there is a jumping during IDLE or browsing using stealth mode. During IDLE or browsing there is no difference between Stealth and Auto mode for me, the fan is off until it jumps on for a certain time. In addition there is the HDD noise, but thats nothing to complain about.

Any idea to control this jumping in IDLE and during browsing? The stealth mode is not working for me!


To sum up, this notebook is a hot deal!
Update for you, XMG released the C404 (cooperation between Schenker and Gigabyte) today. There is no difference between the C404 and P34Gv2, except the lettering.

 

try update the SmartManger to latest version.

 

The fan was set on Auto as that's how you are going to want to use it most of the time. MSI had not initialized my OC clocks yet so I was running it stock. I restarted the program and the OC'd clock kicked in.
Truth is, I don't want to do many more videos on games and overclocking UNTIL I get my hands on an unlocked BIOS. With the BIOS unlocked, supposedly the card can be pushed to match 870m. I want to save gameplay and OC videos for that

 

What are your temperatures? Try using HWMonitor to see. I know on Auto the fans kick in when CPU hits 60 degrees.

 

SmartManager was updated.

Fan-Tweak: Stealth-Mode
Temperatures in IDLE (CPU Cores): 52-58
Temperatures during Browsing (CPU Cores): 54-60/61


-> Fan kicks on in Stealth and Auto if the temperature hits the 60 degrees, this happens every two minutes for 20seconds. Therefore there is no difference between Auto and stealth mode for me!

 

ah, ok.

Are you going to use Auto fan even with higher voltage (i assume you want this from the modded vbios, as with stock voltage the gpu won't take so much more than the +135MHz i guess?), as the temps under stock voltage seem to be quite ok with auto fan, but with more voltage the max fan setting could become neccessary, as i remember that you wrote some time ago about throttling in Auto fan mode instead of automatically changing the fan speed from 2nd highest to highest fan stage...?

I understand that you wanna spare your time for the final OC video. But did you nevertheless make some benchmarks with your current OC settings?
HTWingNut posted some benchmarks from his 860m W230SS here, but the occasional drops of the min fps under the values of lower OC settings or even stock (thief) would bother me a bit. Have you or are you gonna make some benchmarks with your current OC and experienced these min fps drops as well?

 

Seems to me the build quality on this is kind of hit and miss. Some are reporting various defects and problems and whatnot while some are finding nothing at all...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

That's exactly it! That was one of the reason I got it from XoticPC; they do their own quality check! The only real complaint I have is that the touchpad buttons are kind of annoying (small travel). Other than that, all is good for me!

 

Sebi97, how do you think, will it last 3-4 years?

Also, it is not fair comparison, but let's make it simple. Personally, would you prefer p34g v2 or macbook pro 13 in long term? I still will need to run Windows via Fusion / Bootcamp

Sorry beeing annoying, I've no posibility to view it in live except videos and taking into cosideration people's reviews)

 

Is there anyone who can suggest a msata SSD? Should I buy 128GB or 256GB?

What Memory do I need to upgrade up to 16GB? (8GB DDR3L SODIMM 1600)

 

Following the response to my enquiries regarding battery sizes in UK from amazon (battery shipped is 73wh) which was wrong, and then the helpful Gigabyte (we don't know), I contacted the schenker guys at mysn who have responded with the following:

"We have this morning just had it confirmed that the C404 will ship from the outset with the 61.25WH 4 cell battery. This does not take up any 2.5" slots so both 1x mSATA and 1x 2.5" are available."

Here's the link so you can order right away! 8gb ballistix sport is same price as normal (extra 4gb free) though make sure you change it, and looks like free arctic silver (repaste?) as well...

http://mysn.co.uk/shop/xmg-c404.html

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I want it to last me 5-6 years (until I finish University) so it better! If you care about gaming, forget the mac. This is a gaming ultra-book. If that's what you need, this is the best value. I dislike mac due to the OS environment and limited software options. Everything is a pain on a mac (to me anyways). Windows 8 seems so streamlined, it's like 7 but waaay faster and when you press the start button, a big UI comes instead of the small menu... I don't get why it gets all that hate. The explorer is the same, the interface is the same, the control panel is the same. It's just faster!

 

Hi siperiea,
In this case, according to the information on Gigabyte's website the standard version of the P34G v2 comes with the Li-Polymer: 11.1V, 47.73Wh.
The XMG C404 comes with the Li-Polymer: 15.2V, 61.25 Wh.
What is the benefit of the C404's battery.
Also, would the C404 use a customised XMG firmware or Gigabyte's own (i.e. future firmware updates).
I have very recently placed an order for the P34G v2-CF3 in the UK and any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

Newegg finally has em in stock. Hopefully have mine next week.

 

Larger battery = lasts longer? By around 30% I reckon. Plus you get same storage options. No idea on firmware, but you could probably get hold of either on respective websites. I think Sebi has been in the hunt for an unlocked bios, so there are 'third party' alternatives here. Also drivers are not limited to those it comes with - you can try alternatives...

I don't know whether the 61wh battery is standard for all UK, but I certainly haven't got that impression so far. I don't think anyone in UK has this laptop yet (though could be wrong)...

If I get one, it will defo be via mysn - purely because they know their product, and I've heard they quality check the laptops before dispatch. Probably best to speak with them regarding specific enquiries you may have - I'm just an internet random after all!

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Mysn c404 forum q&a :
http://forums.mysn.co.uk/showthread.php/352-New!-XMG-C404-Core-Gaming-Laptop-Official-thread

" Q: Will we see any press reviews in June?
A: Yes!"
This forum suggests its a 15.6" screen, but just a typo/copy paste error from c504.
Which suggests they have review models scheduled - hopefully notebookcheck, or someone else equally thorough! Appreciate the feedback from the guys in this thread to date, but I can't afford til end of June anyway so will take additional info into consideration. Only things making me hesitant is noise on p34g v2, Lenovo y50 (duff screen?), Aorus X3 plus (though Kepler), Asus gx500 (unknown). Think Razer have another announcement in June too...? Also, is 14" big enough - do I need 15.6", or even 17"? Can't find any 14" screens in shops to look at. Decisions, decisions...! Probably just need to grow a pair and bite the bullet

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Thanks for the video. Good stuff.

 

Great work with the videos, Sebi97!

May be of interest to Europeans interested in buying this laptop: This model is also sold as the "XMG C404" at mySN.eu | XMG | Schenker Technologies - XMG C404 14" Notebook

 

I'm dropping a corsair m550 512gb ssd and 16gb g.skill F3-1600C9D (1.35v cl9 stock mhz) ram.
I'll do pcmark before and after install, likely be Wednesday or Thursday (I'm basically local to newegg, should only take a day or two for shipping).
If there's anything specific anyone else wants me to run, I will.

 

What's the logic behind those particular choices? Always interested to hear individuals reasoning - why those over other products? I haven't any experience with ssds, but have read the real life performance difference between say corsair and Samsung is negligible, but (I think) corsair is much cheaper?

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Personal preference.
M550 is actually slower than the samsung, Ive had bad experience with a samsung 830 and the 550 is a newer chip (than 840) touting lower power consumption. I so far have had zero issues with anything corsair. Would have bought corsair ram as well, but the g.skill stuff was quite a bit cheaper and in stock (never had a problem with g.skill ether).

 

Hey guys, quick thanks Sebi. Awesome videos. I subscribed to make sure I know when you put something new up

On to the question. I am going to buy this laptop soon through Xoticpc, so should I get their $35 IC Diamond thermal paste upgrade or just paste it myself later. If I did myself, probably wouldn't get around to doing it for another 5 months or so.

 

Hi,
thanks again, I have contacted Schenker and among other details they mentioned that the XMG C404, in addition to the XMG custom firmware, will be able to take the Gigabyte firmware.
Their customer service has been very helpful and informative so far.
I am still uncertain about the battery though:
the 47.73Wh with 11.1V on the P34Gv2 should be at 4,300mAh capacity,
the 61.25Wh with 15.2V on C404 should be at 4,029mAh, so potentially lower capacity.
From some research, it seems that the mWh vs mAh inquiry is a more complicated matter, so is someone able to explain it in simple terms/examples?
Many Thanks

 

Hi All,

Does anyone have an opinion on the sound quality from the speakers? In particular, how does the volume/clarity compare to a Macbook speakers.

I'm a little hesitant to pick up the P34G V2 after experiencing the awfully quiet and tinny speakers from my Clevo.

 

As Sebi97 has mentioned in one of his videos, the CPU underclocks when the laptop is running on battery power. There doesn't appear to be a way to solve this through the windows power management, however I did get the clock multiplier back up to the 33-34 that it runs at on AC power with some overclocking software (as opposed to 8 to 13 on battery). Will running the CPU at full power on battery have any negative effect on the system besides decreased battery life? I don't want to push it to supply power and damage the motherboard or other components if it isn't able to...

 

I imagine the battery won't like it as it will need to output more than it was designed too causing it to wear pre-maturely. I don't see why the CPU downclock should matter; even for games unplugged, the CPU is not a bottleneck. It's the GPU that's the problem :/

 

What you wrote above doesn't make sense. It's actually really easy. Wh is a measurement of energy, like a liter of diesel or it's what you pay for in your electrical bill.

1 Watt is defined as the power of 1V×1A. If a battery with 1V supplies a current of 1A for one hour it will have provided 1Wh of energy. You can also say it provided 1Ah. And since you know it has 1V the meaning is about the same. Without knowing a voltage the unit Ah is absolutely useless. Therefore it is only used with batteries where the voltage is firstly known and secondly constant.

I am, too, very curious about the batteries and hope someone can clarify.

The 47.73 Wh battery is the smallest and at 11.1V provides 47.73/11.1Ah = 4.3Ah
So for 61.25Wh it would be 61.25/15.2Ah = 4.03Ah

But here you can see those numbers mean nothing for a notebook. The Ah value is smaller for the 15.2V battery.
But it's actually the much bigger battery. It can provide 61.25/47.73 = 1.28 times the energy. Or 28% more.

If the laptop runs 4h on the 47Wh it will run 5h 7min with the larger capacity!!! That's huge.

If they really managed to squeeze that capacity into the smaller size battery that leaves room for a 2.5" drive there would be no reason to ever buy the large battery. So nobody would have to choose between hard drive or battery but we could have both! The 2Wh difference to the large battery is something like 5min, therefore negligible.
I can't believe that, though. Sounds too good to be true.

 

While I own this laptop, I'm coming from a series of MacBooks so I don't even know anymore... Can I just buy any random third party power supply for this or do I need to get Gigabyte's? It's a bit bulkier than I'd like to carry around with me when traveling

 

Hi mate, can't comment on the power supply issue, but if you don't mind me asking, how does the speaker quality stack up compared to the Macbooks?

 

You can try Codi Luggage 100W Universal Notebook Ac Power Adapter

Found somewhere on the Internet:
"Theory is that Gigabyte standardize on their gaming laptop power supplies to support all their power hungry gaming laptops. That's because the power supply technically supports 150W! (19.5v, 7.7A ) The laptop itself at MAX wouldn't really exceed 100W (CPU@47W, GPU@45W, ~8W for others), I would recommend a second, small 90-100W power adapter for day to day carry. I use Innergie mCube Slim 95W with no issue, it peak at 120W and deliver 95W constant which is fine to power the P34G V2 even when playing games"

 

After testing the P34Gv2 for 7 days I decided to return it because of awful battery life. The P34Gv2 would be the perfect notebook if it had more than 6 hours of battery life. I recommend the P34Gv2 for players who play on a desk where the plug socket is not far away. Without pluged in the processor is slowing down and the performance is really bad, in addition the battery life is not improving under this explained performance loss.

Yesterday I figured out, that all my favourite games are running under the MacBook Pro Retina 13 with Bootcamp and Win8.1, therefore I'm going with Apple (-.- definitely not my first desire). The Gaming option did not have priority but played a role in deciding for the P34Gv2. After all these test days with the P34Gv2 I prefer the battery life, the cool bottom side and the smaller ac adapter instead of having gaming power (there is no mobile gaming power!!! performance loss and battery life!!!). The P34Gv2 is getting very hot on your laps even in IDLE, you will need a notebook pillow and of course the fans are audible in IDLE as well. After updating the fan tweak tool nothing could be improved, because the fans are hitting 60 degree regularly (noise is nothing compared to the MSI GS60, that's really awesome).

To sum up, battery life and the loss of performance were the dealbreakers for me. Everyone who can live with this two issues, this notebook is really amazing and the best buy in the price class!!!!!

PS: speakers are satisfying, but nothing more. If you want to enjoy music, get headphones or a sound system. For watching videos or playing games without having to high expectations the speakers should work. For me the speakers of the MSI GS60 were much better. I can not compare it to the MacBook Pro yet, but beeing objective, the speakers are notebook speakers, sound is a bit weak...

 

You'd be hard pressed to find any laptop with a high end GPU that has 6+ hours of battery life...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

The issues you've described with having on the machine are pretty much across the board what to expect for a gaming machine. They can't operate at full power while under battery as they need to draw more power than the battery alone can provide. Any machine with any sort of gaming performance is going to have a shorter life than one without gaming performance and where that 6 hour life would be nice, not feasible with current battery technology being used in laptops. Even on Macbooks that have similar hardware you're going to be paying a lot more for the same hardware to get a marginally better battery.

 

Hit the nail on the head with this post; gaming power can ONLY come at AC power. If you watched my review pre-purchase, I mentioned that
Good luck with your future laptop. I bought this laptop knowing I'm only going to get 3-4 hours. But when I can OC to match GTX 870m levels and play BF4 on ultra at 60fps on 21mm thin; it's sooo worth it.

 

The speakers aren't as good as my old MBP. I'd say part of that is the speakers under the front lip. That makes the sound a little muddled to me.

I did the reverse... I bought the Retina 13" MBP and returned it within 2 weeks. Not only could the integrated graphics not able to keep up for the games I wanted to play, mine heated up to close to 100 degrees just watching youtube. if I was only using it for word processing and office apps I'd be fine with that, but I'm more likely to watch video and play games and I don't want to constantly be cooking my laptop.

 

Yes, another consequence of the unacceptable manufacturer standpoint "we know better what the customer wants and we have to protect him from himself". The battery should not be an issue - LiIon batteries can supply high currents.

Anyway, can you please go into details of how you did that? I need exactly that and hate my Elitebook for throttling down horribly in battery mode. I sometimes need the power, though. For the CPU, that is.

 

You make us quite curious on your laptop's status quo
Do you already found a modified vBios or what are your current OC settings?

Still waiting impatiently on your OC video . But couldn't you feed us with just some numbers respective fps comparison ( min and average fps) between stock vs OC in some games so far? Do you maybe even have some games with integrated benchmarks at all?

Edit: Ah! And temps comparison stock vs OC would be of interest as well of course. Thanks.