Noob question about GIGABYTE P35X

I am intrigued about the Pascal version of GIGABYTE P35XV6. How good are these laptops from Gigabyte in terms of quality and performance? I like the 1070 version.

 

See our review of the P57, it's similar enough. The P35 has a metal exterior though, so it's better built by a good amount.

Charles

 

This laptop is like the jack of all trades. It does a great job at doing just about anything you need done, but nothing about it particularly stands out. Build quality-wise.... It's decent, at best.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd chip in. I just got mine today, and here's my initial thoughts.

-keyboard is VERY far back on the chassis. With my MSI GT60, I could wrest my wrists on the edge of the palm-rest & type just fine. With the P35X, i'm having to push my watch up my arm so that it doesn't sit on the palm rest.

-4k IPS is the way to go. I refuse to buy ANY laptop without UHD. It's marginally better than the 3k on my GT60--but both are head & shoulders above 1080p offerings--even brand new ones. DO NOT LISTEN to anyone who tells you that UHD is overkill on a 15" laptop; they are an idiot. There was a time when people said WUXGA and FHD were overkill on a 15" laptop too. Go with UHD (3k or 4k) and you can thank me later. Windows 10 will easily scale to it. It's a non-issue.

-Keyboard is barebones functional. It doesn't hold a candle to the Steel Series on the GT60 though. Steel Series is (imho) the best integrated laptop keyboard you can get. This one feels a bit more like the old one on my Sager 8662--except backlit.

-Speakers have almost no bass. They function ok--but compared the DynAudio on my GT60, it leaves something to be desired.

-Fan seems a bit quieter while playing the same games...but that's probably also because GTX 1070 is a BIG upgrade from GTX 780m. And even though I'm pretty religious about blowing dust out of the vent holes on my laptops...the GT60 being 3 years old probably runs a tad hotter than it did new.

-I find the CD drive swappability a great plus. I'm using my HDD from my GT60 in that bay at the moment--and it works great.

-Applying pressure to the lid doesn't seem to distort the screen the same way it does on my GT60. Neither really flexes much, so this isn't a big deal. It's not as flimsy as some would suggest..but I don't think I'd want to get this in a cheaper quality plastic lid. Plastic palm rest vs the metal on my GT60 (which is almost all brushed metal).

-VGA port is a silly addition. Give me another USB out or another HDMI please. Aesthetically, I like the power jack (middle back) on the GT60 better than the one on the P35x...but this is piddly. Same for the headphone jack; I usually like it to be on the front or close to it...but the P35x has it middle of the left side (GT60 has it on the right front corner).

-Much thinner than my GT60, but I'm not sure how that will play out with regards to cooling--during marathon gaming sessions.

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So why did I get the P35X v6? Because even though I have simple requirements--most laptop MFG's simply couldn't meet my needs. I needed 15", GTX 1070 and a UHD screen. MSI (oddly) didn't have anything I could find to fit this bill. ASUS ROG is still in the dark-ages with 1080p-only offerings (and RED ONLY backlighting). So it was either Alienware 15 with UHD for ~$2100; Aorus for ~$2400; Clevo (many brands) for ~$2100; or Gigabyte for ~$1800. So I'll save a couple hundred and live with a couple less-than-ideal features.

Functionally, apart from the keyboard & speakers, the P35X offers a virtually identical user experience to my GT60-2OD-261; noise & cooling are afterthoughts...cutting edge graphics & display are of prime importance. In summary, it's not perfect, but it's getting close--and for the cost (vs other UHD offerings with 10 series GTX cards) you really can't beat it.

 

Hey Guys,

I have an even noob-ier question, I've recently purchased a Gigabyte P35x v6 and want to replace the swappable DVD drive with another solid state.

What brand/kind of solid state will fit in there/should I buy, best value for money?

Thanks

 

It's a 2.5inch drive slot, and it's SATA3, which means you're looking at standard SATA3, 2.5inch SSDs.

Of the ones currently out, you may want to look at the Samsung Evo 850 series. They aren't the absolute best value for money, but they are mostly considered the must-buys for the non-enthusiast levels.

Alternatively, you can look at the Crucial MX300 which is better priced for worse performance.

Ultimately with the state SSDs are at now, if you are planning on using the drive as a storage / games drive (ie media, music, movies, games) then you're not going to notice much real world difference between enthusiast and budget options.

If you plan on writing heavy loads to the SSD (such as doing video editing / rendering) then you'll want to spend more for the better speeds.

BTW How are you finding your P35x? How are temperatures / throttling while gaming?

 

The interface on SATA is where you encounter a bottleneck, compared to m.2. In some respects, this makes using a HDD a better option.

 

Awesome, I was recommended one of the Samsung Evo 850 series by a guy at my local computer shop so will go with one of them!

The P35x v6 is holding up really well, I used to roll an Alienware M17 so this is a huge jump in a different direction in terms of size, weight and build quality (I say that in comparison to Alienware, not all laptops).

I've been playing BF1 with everything maxed apart from texture quality which can be set to 200%, I currently have it running at 150% in 1080p mode. After an hour of playing I can't tell any difference in heat, it does run fairly hot but maintains the same heat the entire time (unlike my Alienware which used to build up until it was dangerously hot).

I think they've been smart this time, especially with the placement of the GPU's which sit to the right of the laptop, allowing the WASD keys to remain cool. That being said the keyboard does take some getting used to, I have to remove my watch in order to play games as it rides up my arm whilst playing.

All up, I think its a affordable, practical, extremely powerful 15" laptop.

 

the swappable CD drive was a nice bonus for me, because I didn't even have to open it up to toss in my HDD from my old gaming rig. Just shoved it in the HDD slot, plugged it in, and turned it on. Instant gaming--no need to redownload/patch. Money.

 

What respects are these? To my knowledge, there is basically no advantage to using a HDD over an SSD except for price per gigabyte, SATA or not.

SSDs are:
Lighter
Use less power
Faster
Quieter

HDDs are:
Cheaper per gigabyte

Is there something else I'm missing?

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I'd definitely love to see some measured thermals, as I'm still strongly considering the P35X but am scared off by all the reports of thermal throttling if you don't do a repaste.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msata-vs-m-2.762651/

Now I'm not 100% sure which interface standards are used & what bandwidth is available--specific to this model laptop. Instead I just go by the rule of thumb that SATA interface will generally have less bandwidth headroom than m.2.

Everything else you listed there is correct.^

(p.s. Mind you, most people will probably not come close to hitting max bandwidth on their storage devices on a regular basis....but it IS a potential difference).

 

Well cooling is the most important part in gaming performance. If it's too high the laptop will throttle. Have you run some tests to see where the Temps sit during gaming?

 

I know mine are usually no higher than about 81C...but I haven't tried any games other than Star Trek Online (windowed, 90% of the 4k screen, MSAA 8X). If the game is open/windowed but in the background, temps are usually below 70C--even without being on a menu screen.

I can't complain. I looked extensively at the features of the Aorus X5 vs those of the Gigabyte P35x, and I just cannot justify the premium. Apart from the per-key lighting on the Aorus, it's virtually a wash. You might get lower temps on the X5 if you're lucky, but according to the reviews i read, it was a max of about 90c on the P35X vs 85c on the x5. Some difference, but not that substantial. I'm not sure any 15" with the 1070 and a 4k screen are going to show substantially lower temps. It'll be a generation or two before you're going to see 60 FPS 4k gaming and <70C temps in a 15" laptop.

 

What's I'm concerned about most is invisible throttling and cooling in less than perfect conditions. How can I tell a laptop model doesn't throttle to normal temps, affecting gaming performance while giving the impression that it's a good cooler?

Do you have some intensive game sitting somewhere on your hard drive?

 

Oh yeah I totally get you and agree with you here. I was just wondering if I'd missed some extra application a bog standard HDD has over an SSD. From what I understand, and I could be wrong, a 2.5" SSD of basically any even "casual" class is going to outclass a 2.5" HDD in every important metric except for price per gigabyte. Even if, theoretically, a user hits SATA3 6GB/s bandwidth limitation on an SSD, therefore bottlenecking the SSD, the SSD itself is still far and away a better choice than the HDD unless price is of extreme importance.

By your phrasing, I thought that perhaps there was an additional factor I wasn't considering wrt to standard HDDs.

Thanks for your thoughts and posting your temps as well. If you run any more demanding games, I'd be super interested in seeing the results for those.

At the moment I'm looking for a portable all-in-one-er. I know that's kind of an oxymoron but the truth is I travel a ton and being able to game while I spend 2 weeks somewhere is a really great thing. The P35x has interested me for a long time, but I've always been very afraid of the thermals.

 

Thermal throttling will be very visible on any monitoring software. MSI Afterburner, for example, can monitor your graphics card clocks and you'll get a graph readout and can compare to temperatures. You'll know instantly if you're throttling. It's not like a consistent thing, you don't just drop from Clockspeed A to Clockspeed B and then stay there. It'll be a bumpy, unsmooth line as clocks respond to shifting temperatures. (On GTX 10 series cards)

CPU throttling will be visible in a monitoring program also. I do not have experience with CPU throttling but from what I understand, it's a pretty hard throttle and you'll see it on a line graph.

 

Here's my .$02 on that. If you desire 1080p, not 4k (personal preference), then MSI GT62 is the bee's knees. MSI was actually my 1st choice--but since I insist on having > 1080p resolution & I couldn't find that paired with a 1070 card --I looked elsewhere. Personally, I LOVE MSI's 3k display I have on my GT60.

MSI's have the Steel Series keyboards, which are (again, imho) the best laptop keyboards you can get currently. DynAudio speakers (best laptop audio you can get, imho). And although they're a bit chunkier & loud, I feel more confident in their thermal dissipation capabilities than I would with a thinner chassis (but I'll let others weigh in here).

STO is running windowed in the background and still sitting at 61C, even though I've been on the forums for 20 minutes. I'm not sure what "Graphically intensive" games I should run. I stopped paying $59,99 for games a LONG time ago. I doubt anyone cares about my thermal benchmarks from Starcraft 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or Serious Sam 3.

I do plan to try running this puppy with my VERY old Aeolus Enermax--once I get it up and running again. I'll try and post temps on it then.