New Aorus X7 Slim SLI Gaming Notebook

Our unboxing review of Aorus X7, enjoy

 

Mine shipped and should be here tomorrow or Wednesday!! Can't wait...

 

Mine is in the preorder pipeline, I am guessing that it may be with papa, at the end of March (Fingers cross).

 

Mine shipped, set to arrive tomorrow at some point.

Reading some reviews, many are saying its fairly overpriced. I really disagree with that, especially for the $2099USD price. Consider a comparable Alienware M17X upgraded with a 780M, 1920x1080 screen, and 16GB RAM (still without 2msata drives in Raid 0) lists for $2399. Not dogging Alienware, as I've owned an M15, M17X, M18X, M17X3D, and M11X. Just pointing out I think $2099 is great bang for your buck with this product. Will give Razer some much needed competition, along with MSI, for producing aluminum, thin gaming notebooks.

 

Sorry, but your video is marked as private still

 

I have it!!! Ran all the updates on the system last night. Tonight I will image and create a VHD to boot from (have to keep the work and play separate).

It is nice... crazy fast and crazy thin... So far I love it!

 

i envy you, but only for the next 24 hours or so

 

work and play? using this as a work machine as well? don't think i could talk my church into buying me one of these for office use.

 

Just got mine pre-ordered on newegg. Really hope it arrives this month... Anyone have experience with how long this typically takes?

 

Did you get any notification this yet?

 

Not yet! I heard that a new batch will be ready at the end of this month.

 

@johhobts, That may be a tough one to sell. I do Test System integration.... Do I really need the dual video cards with my current work load.. not right now. But If I end up doing some CAD work on the next project I will be very happy that I have them. And being that I hope to get at least 2 years out of this (of work use) I wanted to cover everything that I might get into.

Also, being the owner and only employee of my company the only boss I have to convince is my wife... that can help too. Although the system shipped so fast that I didn't have time to talk with her. So that did make for an interesting discussion.

 

My church would not buy me this, though they did get me a fully loaded iPad air and a monthly data plan. And my wife doesn't know about the aorus... yet. Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

anybody else have trouble making a backup usb drive? i run the included app and it says complete, but the usb drive is only 600mb full, not 20gb, and it certainly doesn't work... any other ideas?

 

Finally just used Easus Todo Backup and copied the partition to the 1TB HDD then swapped out for my 2x480GB msatas... Booted with USB drive and copied the partition over and voila...

Never got the system backup usb utility to create a fully functional drive. aorus tech support doesn't have a laptop yet to help me troubleshoot. meanwhile, just keep the original msatas in the box as my backup. just now starting to install some of my games. won't have benchmarks or comments till tomorrow at some point. htwingnut did all the heavy lifting already. coming from my blade 14 can say the screen is really very nice, as nice as my blade pro 17, which i think uses a similar panel.

the glass trackpad is classy, but had to bump up sensitivity. fiddling with basic installs and stuff the machine is very quiet on idle, and warm to the touch on the bottom, but not hot at all. can easily see myself doing office work with no problems. it looks even more professional than the blade, as the logo doesn't light up on the lcd backplate. the only things that gives it away as a gaming notebook are the WASD keys are outlined, and there's a huge GTX SLI sticker on the left palmrest. Will probably keep the sticker b/c its awesome. The only two things I find not so stellar (and this is really nitpicking), is one of the footpads seems a little loose, and so does the plastic border surrounding the macro keys. Not loose as in I can easily remove them, but just loose enough to feel cheap compared to the rest of the components.

Build quality: at least as good as the Blade, but not unibody solid like the macbooks. Make sure you have a Torx 5 screwdriver so you don't strip the screws removing the bottom plate. I have some MX4 thermal paste and cleaner ready for the GPUs and CPU but will hold off on that. The Nvidia driver it comes with is outdated, but think the newer driver may not support the 765m in SLI. Anybody else update their gfx?

Love the slimness, and the light weight. Really haven't been this excited about a gaming notebook since the original blade landed at my doorstep. from under 7lbs, 1" thick with a GT 555m to an under 7lb, 1" thick with 2X GTX 765Ms in a couple of years? Impressive. Read my old review on the original Razer Blade at techinferno if you like. I want to take this thing to Best Buy and show my gaming pal in Geek Squad this thing next to an ASUS G series with one 765M and make him cry.

One other thing: the driver update app is nice. Just 20 minutes ago, it showed a new bios update for the Aorus has just gone live. Updated my Bios. Any other early adopters please let me know if you have any luck creating a system recovery drive, hate that I spent 3 hours tonight and never got it to work.

 

staying up way to late playing with this thing, still gettting my steam files copied over to hdd to transfer. anyway, 3dmark11 scored at P7317. Did an overclock with Afterburner with Core Clock +135mhz and memory +100 and got up to P7975. Should be easy to break 8000. Was running some background apps too. Ran the fans full speed during second test. I don't see myself needing to overclock anytime soon anyway. Fans at full blast are loud. But then again, I had the bakground music muted so can't say how bad the noise will be when gaming. prefer headphones anyway.

 

What is the price for this thing? I cant find anyplace that sellls it. Also what do u guys think it would cost if i ship it to Norway? I dont think any shop in Norway will get this so i have to ship.

 

$2099 USD in America. Dunno anything about Norway.

 

Are they any store that ships to norway? It will be so expensive to do it with jetcarrier.

 

I live in Denmark and ordered mine from overclockers.co.uk

Aorus X7-CF1 17.3" LED TFT, Intel Core i7-4700HQ, 16GB DDR3, 2x128 SSD RAID, 1TB HDD, Dual NVIDIA GTX 765M SLI - Windows 8 [9WX700003-GB-A-001]

 

Does it really cost 2800 dollar? I read on many places that it would cost 2000-2300 dollar

 

As far as I know, the price is supposed to be $2099-2800.

I end up paying $2973 from overclockers.co.uk with delivery and VAT. I know it is a lot, but I'm not sure that you can get it anywhere else. Overclockers has an exclusive deal in the UK. I've heard that it will come to Germany and France as well, but their keyboard layout is even worse for us Scandinavians (in my opinion)...

 

I think 3000 dollar is way to expensive for a laptop. I rather go for a msi gs 70 or I just skip the thinnes and go for the asus g750JX or JH

 

Normally I'd never pay this amount for a laptop, but for me it seems to be the perfect laptop so I decided to do it anyway. It really depends on who you are and what your budget is... If you don't mind the thickness, then I'd go for the g750. I have a G73JH right now which i still love, but it is becoming a bit outdated. The only reason I bought the X7, is because I want something more portable this time.

 

went to bestbuy with my aorus as i said i would, just like i did with my razer blade when it first came out. let the bestbuy pals play with it right next to the ASUS G73 (with a mere 765m). I think $2099 is a steal considering you are getting a premium feel along with great performance. it has that same macbookeque class that the blade series has.

 

If it was 2099 dollar in Norway I would have bought it right away, but normally it is way more expensive in Norway. If I am lucky enough a small company in Norway will buy it cheap and sell it without windows and maybe do a rebranding like they did with the msi gs70, then it will be cheap.

 

Mine will be delivered tomorrow and I will compare it too both of my shiny new Razer Blade 14 and Razer Blade Pro I got this week. If I like X7 better the RBP will go to my oldest son, if i like the RBP better he will be getting the X7. Either way I am excited to see what the X7 has to offer. I am also thinking about grabbing an MSI GS70 and having a 3 way battle to see which is the best for me.

 

Might want to hold tight on the GS70.. Refreshes with 800M series incoming

 

I have a few questions regarding the x7 aimed towards people who currently own it before I consider purchasing this machine.

- Does the backlight of the screen bleed through anywhere along the edge of the display? (Reported along the left and right side)
- How does typing feel on the machine?
- Just how loud are the fans on max? Can they be heard through a gaming headset with music/gaming?
- Overall how is the build quality of the machine? Any loose panels/bezels?

Thanks for any replies.

 

backlight bleed is minimal but evident. much less than my blade 14, or previous blades. its a better than average panel in my opinion. its no ips display, but for a tn panel, its solid.

-keyboard is great! as good as the blade

-with headphones on i don't notice the fans on full blast. my fans only kick to full blast if playing something like crysis 3 at max settings and my vents partially blocked by my leg or something. you can hear them even not on max speed as well, but doesn't bother me when gaming. i usually play without cans btw.

-build quality is top notch! i gave my impressions a few pages ago. its solid, metal, with a premium feel and finish to it. at least as good as any of the razer products i've owned. its not quite on par with apple quality, but its still great.

hope those comments help

 

playing titanfall, its outstanding. really wonderful game. certainly the aorus blows away my razer edge...

 

A 780m is not outdated, it is the best you can get right now. A 880m isnt that much of an upgrade from 780.......

 

thats right, the 880m still has kepler architecture. i think the maxwell refresh for the aorus will be impressive, if its two 860ms or even better 2 870ms. Betting it will be 2 860s though. Impressed by Razer's new offering with their 14". I've been a Razer enthusiast since the first Blade launched. between this and the new Blade Pro i'd go with the X7. The Blade 14 is tempting, but dunno if I want to go back to a 14" panel... Have 25 days to decide. Thanks Newegg for the no-stocking return policy for premiere customers.

 

lol, I complimented Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan on twitter about how he and his company inspired the Aorus X7 and the MSI Ghost, and other powerful slimline notebooks. He is like the GodFather of the X7. And he replied, "Yeah, we could have done SLI like that 3 years ago, but silly battery life without Optimus." Typing this out on my Aorus with only 15 minutes of juice left laughing.

 

I dunno. Monday morning quarterbacking... "yep, I coulda done that, but I just decided not to"...

 

Not to mention the first couple 17 inch blades did not have stellar battery life to begin with and it was more inline with a machine now that has 2x765m's so I'd say almost 3 hours of battery life is not terrible on a machine without Optimus.

They should have done what Alienware does for the M18x/AW 18 and just add full blown graphics switching to shut off the Nvidia cards and run on the intel only.

 

I think I've decided my strategy.

Taking advantage of all the Razer Blade owners with the Pokemon "gotta have them all" syndrome, I'm guessing we will start to see used blades with 765m inundating the market. Then I can grab one of those (or one W230ST) for cheap to cover up for my loyal, although a bit ancient, acer 3820TG with the 5650HD.

All this so I can then comfortably wait for the Broadwell/Maxwell Aorus refresh

 

Anyone else having wifi connectivity issue? I only manage to get 2.5MB/s if I'm within 10ft of my router any further than that and I end up with 300kb/s. Haven't had any problems with any of my other devices, went to customer support an they suggested trying the laptop at a friend's place to see if it may have been the router but saw similar results. Thinking I may have gotten a lemon as I also had a black screen of death less then 30minutes of use when I updated drivers. Guess that should've been the only sign I needed to get a replacement but managed to recover the unit.

 

^ mine is coming with the killer one.

 

after much wrestling with myself, had to return the aorus x7. It is a fantastic laptop, and I wanted to keep it, especially with the ssds upgraded to 960GB, but had to get a Razer Blade 2014 and just can't run up a 4-5k credit card bill all at once. The Blade won't be quite as powerful or have as large a screen, but will be more practical. The plan is to buy an Aorus again when the graphics cards are updated. In fact I will pre-order an Aorus X7 (X8?) the day they announce that. Its my current favorite 17' laptop. For the record, I was so torn on keeping it, I waited till the last day to do my return RMA, playing Titanfall every minute I could. The 2 year warranty, the low price point, metal chasis, SLI, 1" form factor, all very impressive. I can say if you buy an X7, even with the 765m series, you won't be disappointed.

that said, Razer just hasn't let me down ever since my first Blade.

 

Any hands ons on this x7? really want to see a side by side comparison between this and razer blade pro, especially the cooling.
I am still in position for next wave of purchase when newegg has them in stock. However, it's hard to neglect the recent upgrade of GTX 800M series, specially the 860M with maxwell. I don't need 870M+ SLI to push Crysis to 60, all I care about is improvement on their batter life. I think it will make a perfect spec when x7 anounce the upgrade to 860M SLI, or signle 870M/880M for battery life saving.

 

^ very valid point. Guys do you know if is possible to upgrade the video cards or they are fix?. Cheers

 

video cards are not upgradeable, as for battery life, i can tell you the new blade pro will have better life, given it will use nividia optimus, and the 860m uses less power as well. that said, aorus is definitely going to give you better specs for gaming (more than a 2000 point difference in 3dmark11). i personally have owned 3 different Blade Pros, so obviously like them. Getting the Blade 14 this time around. The Aorus is outstanding as well. Two great laptops and hard to choose between them.

 

I have had the Aorus X7 v2 CF1 for about 5 days now. I had originally purchased the MSI GT60 Dom Pro (15.6" with 3K screen). It had some extremely bad overheating/throttling problems that may have been the result of faulty hardware. In any case, I sent it back and got the Aorus.

Pros:

• The design is truly excellent. It's smooth and simple and just looks and feels great. I like the off-white backlighting and the Aorus logo. Also it doesn't come littered with giant stickers like many other laptops.
• The thin profile and light weight are meaningful to me and makes the experience that much nicer.
• Performance is incredible. Startup is about 8 seconds, read/write speeds with the RAID 0 seem crazy fast, and the SLI 860s are tearing up games and benchmarks with impressive scores.
• Temps: Where I would have GPU temps in the high 80s up to the dreaded 93C with the MSI, I am seeing temps in the 60s here. The difference is drastic and it makes me feel much better to know my cards are running at more reasonable temps.
• Connectivity options are excellent, plenty of ports everywhere. I really like how you get a few USB ports and the power port straight off the back. Keeps wires clean and out of the way.
• Fan noise - this may be a Con for some people since the fan does ramp up early to keep things cool. I'm sure there are quieter fans out there, but coming from the MSI's screaming jet engine fan to the Aorus is a VERY welcomed change in decibel and pitch.

Cons:

• I do like the Steel Series keyboard a little bit better (probably the best I've ever used), but the Aorus keys feel uniquely soft and comfortable, albeit a bit "shallow". (The Macros keys are a nice add for the "pros" section)
• The screen is just ok. I am forever ruined by the stunning 3K screen on the MSI. Truly amazing, if you can stand the resolution/scaling issues that will plague almost everything you do.
• Battery life is bad. I guess SLI means no Optimus (I have no idea why). While I don't miss Optimus occasionally making bad assumptions about which card it should use, it DOES really improve battery life. So i get about 2.5 hours web browsing and maybe 1.5 gaming, tops.
• Lack of an optical drive. I guess the need is increasingly rare, but it's still nice to have once (especially as this was a desktop replacement for me). I'll just have to pick up an external at some point.
• The audio is really flat. It sounded like the MSI did before I turned on the Soundblaster software (which improved things dramatically). The Aorus came with no such software so I'm hoping I can add something to improve the audio!

Overall, I'm very impressed with the Aorus and satisfied with my purchase. If anyone has any questions about it let me know. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the on board sound please let me know!

 

How's Wi-Fi? Is the Intel 7260 ac any good? I have an old netgear top of the line N router. I'll probably update to a good AC router down the road.

Can't decide between this, the P35w or the Cyberpower barebones version. I'm leaning towards the Aorus due to it having SLI and future proof for a few years.

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

 

An excellent summary on the laptop! +rep.

(Its in the wrong thread though )