P34W v3 First look, impressions and tests - a Pretty Little Beast

Hello everyone.

Sorry of my post seems a bit off-topic but I need some advices here: I was really considering purchasing this laptop, even when I asked for advices on the forum ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/p34w-a-good-choice.770717/page-2#post-9921817)

But I have just read the review on notebookcheck http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-P34W-v3-Notebook-Review.135573.0.html
And the throttling seems even worse than what I was expecting.

I am not a tech person: I can do repast (somewhat). I have never tried undervolting but since it is (apparently) not dangerous I might try it. BIOS updates are a big "no-no" for me.
I also had an Acer Aspire years ago that would throttle and underclock: I had no idea what it was at that time, but I do remember games going into "slow-mo land" for 20 minutes every 10 minutes.

I am totally undecided now and I am debating about getting the P35W with the 970m, which also seems to have its own issue, but that would mean sacrificing weight, portability and size (I have been using a W110er for the past three years: 15" look monstrously bulky to me now).

Thanks for your feedbacks.

 

You must remember what throttling really is - it is electronics deciding to slow down to protect itself against thermal damage. While modern components (CPUs, GPUs, etc.) can operate at very high temperatures and still be "within specs", more reliable operation and longer life is achieved by operating at lower temperatures. This is why desktop computers typically have a lot of empty space, and many large cooling fans.

Modern trend in laptops is to make as powerful machine as possible, and sandwich components very tightly in a slim, poorly cooled base and mount screen in a very thin, flimsy lid (thin metal lids bend very nicely!). This is always serious compromise, and machines like P34, Aorus, Razer Blade, etc, run very hot, are noisy and often throttle down. Can not be avoided without sacrificing something: weight, portability size.

You need to decide which compromises are acceptable to you. Alienware is much better build, case and the screen lid are strong, and it runs cooler - but is less powerful, heavier, and styling is unusual. If you had Clevo W110 before, look at W230SS (and a new SD coming out in March). Clevos are plain, a bit larger and heavier, but are well build, run reasonably cool, and customizing options are second to none.

Finally if you prefer styling over function, go for a slim, cute powerhouses. Some people drive SUV, some drive Italian sport cars.

 

Can anybody confirm whether the Razer Blade powerbrick works on this laptop? Or, where I can purchase an additional powerbrick?

 

Indeed, I tend to see throttling more like a problem than a protection so the machine will last longer. Honestly, if the effects of throttling are barely noticeable while gaming, I will not complain. I simply still have nightmares of that Acer Aspire that cost me around $1500, supposedly for gaming, and after a few weeks some games were almost unplayable.

 

Biggest thing for me is how the throttling compares to the Razor Blade 2014. Although I'm not sure there are many people whose pockets can make such a comparison.

Also the new "bug-free" nvidia drivers really bug me.

 

where can i get one of these sleeves from? does this only come with the models boufht with 128gb ssd + 1tb? because i bought the model with just 1tb because i already had a 1tb ss and didn want to waste the extra cash not using it just to sell it on.

 

What's the weight of the adapter? I see lots of talk about it being heavier than the razer's, people trying other adapters online since they don't like this one-- Its dimensions aren't too far off from the razer 14. From my scouring online, it looks like it should be about: 6.5" x 3.1" x 1" (inches) but I'm not finding weight any where.

 

To be honest, I don't know. In fact I'm curious why yours didn't come with it. Did a quick search on Alibaba (taobao), no dice. Maybe fellow members from the other side of the world? Any ideas?

I'm pissing off the kitchen-tender to take this pic...

 

hmm could be. is there like a part number or something i could identify the model sleeve on any of the labels inside maybe and just hopefully look it up to see if i could pruchase seperately.
thanks

 

I wish this came with PCI-E SSD like the new Razer Blade Pro. Would have made this thing unstoppable.

 

Do be aware that from the standpoint of time you spend waiting for the SSD to complete a task, PCIe offers very little improvement. MB/s is the inverse of wait time (sec). So:

1) Every doubling of MB/s only cuts the wait time in half. So the jump from SATA2 to SATA3 (250 MB/s to 500 MB/s) reduced wait times by twice as much as the jump from SATA3 to PCIe (500 MB/s to about 1 GB/s). If you had to read 1 GB of data:

4 sec = 1 GB @ 250 MB/s (SATA2)
2 sec = 1 GB @ 500 MB/s (SATA3) - a 2 sec improvement
1 sec = 1 GB @ 1 GB/s (PCIe) - a 1 sec improvement

2) Your SSD spends most of its time doing the things it's slowest at. Say your drive has 500 MB/s sequential speeds and 50 MB/s 4k speeds. Say you give it a task where you need to read 1 GB of sequential data + 1 GB of 4k data.

2 sec = 1 GB sequential data @ 500 MB/s
20 sec = 1 GB 4k data @ 50 MB/s
22 sec total

So 91% of its time is spent on the 4k task where the SATA3 limit is not even a factor. Now if you replaced it with a 1 GB/s PCIe SSD (those still get ~50 MB/s 4k speeds):

1 sec = 1 GB sequential data @ 1 GB/s
20 sec = 1 GB 4k data @ 50 MB/s
21 sec total

Barely any difference. Because MB/s is the inverse of wait time, if you want a fast SSD you should buy one whose smallest MB/s figure is fast. Usually that's the 4k speeds (roughly equivalent to IOPS). The high sequential speed drives like PCIe and RAID-0 only really give a tangible benefit if you're working with lots of large files - e.g. real time video editing.

 

So some more rigorous temp test. I figure I'd start logging stuff but Afterburner keeps turning it off automatically. No idea how to work around that.
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vwb2irvevm53ec6/HardwareMonitoring.hml?dl=0

Hope this helps

 

Hi everyone !

I took my sweet time to enjoy my "Phantasus" that I have for almost a week now... even if I didn't have the time to enjoy it so much... (4 cities, 3 countries and a lot to do).

So first impressions as a "normal user" on the go, coming from a long time with a touchsmart TM2 (still running !):

-Really light, easy to move with one hand ! Just heavy enough so it feels stable !

-The "touch" as I was a bit confusing before with my questions, I will try to explain myself more. It is a great quality ! The touch of computer feels "solid enough" with a texture between plastic and metal which feels really nice. The computer do take some "stains" from sweat or greasy fingers but it doesn't look bad for me, give the impression of something to use, and you can wipe it easily with a tissue ! At least this touch doesn't make me worry about having a scratch from moving it, and I think with this black colour it would takes time to notice it !

-The beast : performance wise, it is really an awesome laptop I do have the same or better results that I had with GT-72 dominator pro with 880m 8Go inside !
It's two kilos lighter (almost 50% less), 21mm vs 48mm, 14' vs 17'...and a better processor ! awesome
Tests were made ingame with showing fps, no software, no records ! But 120 fps steady and more in every Blizzard game in full hd (1920x1080). No problem when window is downscaling (because by 100% you have to stay too close to the computer for me) and you can switch between both in 15 seconds with smart manager v3 through closing your session.

The battery It was not a main point in my choice but I am pretty satisfied from this part ! As I am a big laptop user I am used to take care of the brightness and wifi if I want to hold more than two and half hours. Gaming for one hour at best. Now it goes for more 5 hours if I let brightness at 30 % and wifi on, only losing one hour if I am downloading a lot. Finally gaming for two and half hours without lags... Nvidia did a great job with the 60 fps cap when unplugged I didn't felt any big difference with AC off, or any significant drop ! And I didn't even tried the charging usb port when computer is off to see how much it drains but it is nice to have such an option.

Now for some cons !

The loudness ... after not even an hour someone asked "is that your laptop making this noise?" I had to answer "yes" ...
It is true I was playing, but Starcraft 2 which is not the heaviest game around...
Even so It easily goes into fan activation even if you are only doing office tasks !
A good answer to this is the stealth mode which keep the computer pretty quiet, but which although gave my first freeze ingame because I forgot to switch it back (was easily saved with alt-tab, switch into auto-high speed, and back to gaming).
But if you don't use it for normal browsing then the fans will get easily noticable, nothing too loud but working.
But truthfully If you go into big gaming then you will have to go into auto-high and then you will be sure that the fans are blowing ! The game sound from speakers is enough for me to cover the fans sounds, and those are doing a steady and clear sound (at least for now...) which make them less noticeable. But still they are blowing hard and good, which took me to another point. On this point a good surprise is that I can skype with friends while gaming and they do hear neither the computer sound from the speakers and neither the fans sounds (I think it came from the noise cancelling that I activated)

The heat !!!
As I write that the fans kicks in ... XTU says processor getting higher than 51°C so yes you do notice those fans even in stealth mode, but not for long...(30 secondes max to cool it backto 50°c)
The loudness is not problem when gaming for me but having the fans going on from time to time while working might be annoying with time.
Although the processor went up to 97°C... I did upgrade bios driver from update manager, because I think it would let the processor goes up to 95°C but going higher is a bit too much... On the other side the GPU temp did not went higher than 84°c !
Once again it look like thermal throttling (XTU says maximum 100%) these side of those laptop as been already discuss, I tough the 4720 would help but it is not solving the problem...

So I think that after spending so much bucks, and still being more satisfied than unsatisfied I might spend some hours checking, testing, begging for help to find a way to limit heat through XTU profils and maybe repasting for light browsing and easy switching through a gaming mode by shortcut. It means I will also lower my game settings through nvidia experience (trying to go to the performance balance) or maybe directly in game settings. In order to find a sweet balance between heat/performance/noise.

So if any of you have some experience, links, video or advice to share it would be gladly welcome ! and I was saying begging for help

@Amal77 I didn't found the option to limit the power option to 99% as you told me before, could you give me more details ? maybe even share your xtu profil

@fanchiuho in the eighth pictures of you repasting post, there is a big gunk on the cpu top. Was it like that when you opened it ? do you think it could be one of the reason for my thermal throttling ? What are you average temp for cpu on normal browsing for now ? and do you remember how high they were before ?

With all that said I feels like I will have to open the thread of the P34W v3 loundge user's, if there is some interested of course !

Thank you all for sharing and reading those posts !

P.S. : Sorry for the long post, no potatoes for you, but a picture of gaming on a full hd beamer with the phantasus will be posted later

 

It seems to me that they use the same cut of thermal paste on both the GPU and the CPU, but on to different surface areas.

If I am to guess, that would more likely be an indicator of excess paste, rather than it being the cause of worse temps.

 

It's a common trick to turn off turbo boost. Intel makes an app for showing turbo boost state and disabling it. But most people use this method.

Start -> Control Panel -> Power Options -> (pick your preferred plan) -> Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings

Scroll down to Processor power management.
Change Maximum processor state to 99%

Turbo boost kicks in when the processor hits 100%, so this effectively prevents the CPU from entering turbo boost. And since you can assign it to a specific power plan, it's really easy to switch it on and off. Just click on the battery icon in the lower right and change which plan you're using.

You can also set the maximum to lower than 99%. My old Sony Z sounds like a banshee when gaming. I found that setting the max CPU to 75% made the fan noise much more tolerable at the cost of only a slight decrease in FPS.

 

thanks for that. it didnt really help, one search came up in foreign but it confirmed it wasnt for resale but i thought prob have something that is under another code that is for sale but gigabyte can be so obscure with accesseseries

 

I got mine about a week ago.

First impressions:

Secure Boot is locked down, so I haven't managed to install Linux on it yet. Gigabyte support says I should set BIOS to "Windows 7" mode, not sure if this will kill the Windows 8.1 keys/boot options?

It's fast. But it has three throttling levels; stealth, auto-low speed, auto-high speed and maximum fans.
Auto-high speed seems to have minimum amount of throttling. The other lower two does a lot of throttling to keep the CPU temperature down. I presume maximum fans just turn up the fans to max with the same throttling as auto-high speed.

"Stealth" doesn't turn off the fans for me when using 2-5% CPU. It's still going. Not sure why. Better than the other options, though, when I don't need the CPU.

Mine has 1TB spinny disk on a 2.5" SATA slot, and an empty mSATA slot. I will fill the mSATA slot today and see if I can move the Windows there and replace the 2.5" with my old Linux SSD.

 

Can anybody confirm that the heatsink pipes is made from copper? Going to use Coollaboratory Liquid Pro, as it appears that I am going to need all the cooling I can get

According to @fanchiuho's photos ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/p34w-v3-first-look-impressions-and-tests-a-pretty-little-beast.770556/page-3#post-9918928), this appears to be the case, but I just want to make sure.

 

Oh of course it's copper pipes no worries.
And do update your venture with Coollab as I heard it is both dangerous and dangerously effective…

 

Do let us I know how it goes @bkvamme . I hear that stuff is the best thermal paste there is. What better use for it than a super compact 14inch gamer notebook.

 

I have this laptop for more than a week now but something is really bothering me. I cannot manage to bring the temps down despite all my efforts. I did a repast but I'm still reaching 79-80° even with a cooling pad (playing Far Cry 4).

In fact I'm not really bothered by the temperatures but the fan noise is exasperating. Fans are really loud on this laptop due to its thickness but I kinda expected this.

I'd really be interested to know what temperatures you all are reaching. I would also like to know how @fanchiuho only reaches 66° for the GPU and 63° for the CPU.

 

Yeah, I heard that it's really nasty stuff, but extremely effective. The retail kit didn't cost that much (12EUR) including shipping, and that includes a cleaning kit for the liquid metal stuff. So it's worth a shot. I might also throw in a comparison with IC Diamond as I have a tube laying around.

It will certainly be significantly better than the stock goo.

What is the recommended software for stresstesting both the CPU and GPU? I think I'll use prime95 for cpu only, and furmark for GPU only. Is there any good logging software for temps? Would love to have some graphs to show the difference over time.

 

Those two are the ones most people recommend. So maybe you can run them both at the same time.

There is also a program called Heavyload but I haven't really used it much.

For temps, Coretemps is what most people use to CPU temps. Although there are tons of different software out there. If you want fancy charts and graphs. You will have to look into the paid versions/apps. As long as you have the data though you can make all the graphs and charts in Excel.

 

Glad you like it. I had to rma mine. Screen bleeding so without it on the weekend and replacing till hopefully before end of next week


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Hello all!

Question about the XMG c405 : http://mysn.co.uk/shop/xmg-c405-gaminglaptop.html
My belief is that it is based on the p34w just like the c404 was based on the p34g. However, it seems the chassis still has the silver-like keyboard cover.
Do you think it will stay that way, or do you believe these are more like placeholder pictures based on the c404, to be replaced by real ones of the c405 when it is available?
Thanks!

 

Hi everyone !

Still no User lounge for our little Phantasus ? I will try to make one this Sunday if nobody did at that time !

Thank you for your information, repasting is not a usage of mine, but I will have to try if it helps keep the fans low...

Thank you it working pretty well for the fans on battery, but I have try to lower the the % on AC because it is still getting to high in temp (so the fans have to kick in...) in normal usage.

I have dual boot installed by my reseller and I had a problem when I did the motherboard Bios udpate from update manager... impossible to have access to boot selection and no window harddrive detected... so after some tries in the bios I finally made a reset window 7 boot setting (tried the window8.1 first but didn't work), and everything when back to normal without data loss. It make me wonder as I have the old bios page, how I can (and will) update my bios to have the UEFI boot to make the fastest boot possible (also I have to check for linux how dual boot can work)

Yes please, give us feedback with temps before and after if possible. Having a usage test could be interesting too (browsing vs gaming). Also what is the difference with this past and why it have to goes with copper only (I know I can Google it but I am sure your answer will be better)

I am really interested with those temps too ! With usage I think that the fans start temp is around 51°, and in normal use it goes from 49° to 53° so fans kick in from time to time... With a repaste that make you loose 5° to 6° We might avoid this fans sounds in normal usage !
But I have never repaste and I have seen to many repast without good result (but I have never read of guy breaking his laptop doing that).
E.G. (example given) : In the great video (about repasting) that was linked before in this thread (page 3), a quick analyse show you that when he says he earn 5° to 6° cut, if you write the temp down and look on his screen he only earns a 2° cut on the cpu. And his tests are not even in the long term (even if says so after a few minutes of stressing, clock on his desktop didn't change) Still it is a great Video which helps newbies like me trying adventurous solutions for our beloved hardware !!!
So yes @fanchiuho as asked before, it would helps us a lot to know if your repaste did cut you enough ° so the fans do not activate (maybe they still activate the fans at lower temps and it depends on an other data)

At the moment, I am looking more on the XTU side. If anyone like to share his custom xtu profile I would apply them on my laptop happily. But maybe I just need to find a good tutorial that explains well what you are changing and how the different variables are working together ! So I can be optimizing more than testing.

The loudness down side make me love gaming on battery so much !!!

E.G. : Yesterday I started playing War Thunder ,inside on battery on Auto high mode using just a small carton to upper the back of the laptop so I only 1 cm high and doesn't just lay completely on the table, Nvidia lock my fps to 30 and here I go for a quiet hour of Plane crashing (fan are on but game sound at 50% is enough to not notice them).
Battery low alert appears, I plug the AC and tab back into the game. FPS goes up to 120 and more, nice but no real change in game.
But real changes in loudness ... fans kicks into the second loudest level, real noticeable... game sounds to 80% and war is back on !
Twenty minutes later , I unplug to go outside with the laptop in a cool 0° weather (made me wonder what is the low temp limit for this laptop ), stay ten minutes then came back to gaming unplugged. At this time it was a wonder how I didn't notice the fans ( I think the music on 80% really covers everything).
Time passes ... Battery Alert... Plug AC... two minutes and fans are on the loudest level... And even if it was not a big pain when I was going for a gaming session and knowing that it would be loud and so adjust everything ... At this time It was too loud for me ...

I do realize that I am playing mostly old games and games that are not so demanding so I wonder...
- Should I fall into Vsync ? with this beast I might be able to have great gaming experience with a really low level of loudness. My screen and beamer are both 60Hz limited so why having more than 70 steady... I have to get info on this tech because nvidia did a really great job with battery boost mode (I have to get info on this too, and maybe apply them even with AC on)
-I have to create a boost button with a shortcut, so I can easily activate the full power of the Phantasus, but keep it as low as needed the rest of the time. Maybe I have to create different levels (1. hardcore gaming and streaming 2.hardcore gaming 3. gaming and streaming. 4.Video encoding etc...)
-I have to learn about UEFI boot, and starts to use linux C.buntu(They didn't gave me the password for now so I open my log )
-What cooler pad should I get for long gaming session ?
-Would repaste really helps ? If yes what paste should I use ? I will be waiting for some more feed backs on this side

With time I do realize that With great power, comes Great ... Loudness But I do like the fact that this laptop can keep so much power cooled down so I will try to find the best balance between needed power and quietness because true efficiency is using only the exact amount of force needed to achieve your task. But yes I think that with some software adjustment we can keep a really efficient and quiet computer... and even extend battery life ! On this side it is a pleasure to have laptop than you can leave on the whole afternoon with 50% time usage (gaming, browsing and downloading) and still have 60% battery left after that !

So sorry for the long post no potatoes for you but a picture of gaming on this laptop with a full Hd beamer and my new wall paper going well this black addicting connected laptop

 

From what i read, Gallum, one of the ingredients in Cooling Laboratory Thermal paste, reacts with aluminum and creates an alloy. So if you use it with a aluminum heatsink it will destroy it.

This is what Cooling laboratory says about the matter:

Edit:

Here is a gallery from our very own Mr. Fox. with a compassion of IC diamond vs Cool lab Liquid Ultra in an Alienware 18 http://imgur.com/a/JUQvK

Also here is a video to caution you about Gallum + Aluminum

Scary stuff.

 

If you are familiar with less demanding games you'll know that 100% GPU utilization doesn't equate to the same temps under constant conditions, if you run a demanding game vs. a less demanding one.

There were a few implications about that particular pic:
PAYDAY 2 is worlds easier to run than Far Cry 4
That pic was taken at like 9C ambient, pretty much the coldest day over mine's. Now it's about 17 and everything gets hotter again.
I do short runs so the GPU might not be pre-heated well enough.

If you want more info do look at my Afterburner logs, you'll see somewhere near now the GPU runs at 84C on newer titles.

 

It's silver. I already asked xmg. They don't know if they will in future. But I assume by next model they will have it


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@sisqo_uk thanks

 

Also @Nightwolf have you tried the "stealth mode" setting to play your games rather than battery that's surprisingly quiet and still packs out some power to play a game well.
I maxed ultra street fighter at 1080p using its bench mark and it was around 79fps and on max fans it was like around 210fps.

I have test 3d mark and 3d mark 11 on auto high and Max fans profile and Max fans pushes the card for maximum performance even over auto high and there's a difference in benchmarks, for those that want get the most of the gpu. Of course the sound is the trade off.
I also played dying light demanding as heck. And I used profile all profiles. Smooth on max. Decided to try it on stealth mode to see how it would fair with it quiet. surprisingly I didn't see a performance hit. I wasn't. Using traps or anything. But in lever noticed a drop. And it was quiet. Fans went a bit more higher the longer I had it on but i recommend gaming on stealth mode format quiet experience and you can keep it plugged in. And save your battery capacities full charge.
Each game pushes the gpu differently so in stealth mode it Prob be quieter than what I had but I smiled because I was impressed with how the performance is cut in that mode but still ran a demanding game on that level.

I'm waiting for a replacement p34w as screen bleeding forced my hand. Took two weeks to pay attention. And I'm gutted now so gotta make do with "weak" laptop and play lesser games till then


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Found this repaste if anyone cares...Not in English, but it could be a supposed NBR'er......I will be pulling the trigger in a couple of weeks...

 

Thanks for the piece of advice, but I don't see it as the right answer. I mean it can easily be used if you want to keep your laptop as quiet as possible (even if they do kick in). But the way is see "stealth mode" is a limitation of the maximum fan speed, which means your laptop will not be cooled enough and might get really hot in the long term, and you will have to face thermal throttling... The only freeze I got with this computer after an half hour gaming session of SC2 in stealth mode, The freeze happens, I check the keyboard center which was really hot, went into smart manager activate auto-high, back to the game waited ten second with loud fans and it went back... In opposite It might had came from my connection but skype did not cut or lag at the same time (It is always funnier to play with vocal chat ).

But I still have to try if it happens again (with XTU checking temps) and it might have other actions on the cpu and gpu !

At least thanks for sharing your toughs

 

Hmm that's interesting cos I believe that you would get throttling with stealth mode limiting the machines performance. I just didn't experience this on mine for the duration I used it and dying light specs are demanding especially on max settings.
Maybe that game is used harder then. I'll have to check temps on stealth mode when I get a replacement. In auto high fans I hit 88c with gpu and mid 90s cpu with stock paste after a period. Higher than expected but even then stayed smooth


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Hi,
The laptop does indeed reduce performace when in stealth mode to avoid overheating.

The CPU is limited to ~1700MHz on each core, and the GPU runs at around 500-550MHz Core clock and 405MHz memory clock.

Under a furmark test in stealth mode, both the CPU and GPU the laptop was at a comfortable 70-75 degrees in 26C ambient (may be off, I don't trust the thermometer).

The average FPS in Furmarks stress test was 26 FPS.

This will probably be the mode where I game while at university, as the fan noise is totally acceptable.

Changing the mode to Auto-Low Fan speed:
CPU changes between 2600-3200Mhz and runs at 95 degrees, and is affected by thermal throttling.
GPU appears to have steadied at 600MHz and runs at 87 degrees, and is also affected by thermal throttling, as the core clock peaked at 800MHz. Memory clock is steady at 1252MHz.

The average FPS in Furmarks stress test was 49.

The very nice thing about the fan tweak profiles is that the changes are instantanious and can be done on the go.

 

First impressions:

Positives:
- Automatic brightness is actually working
- SmartManager. Very nice software, although I would have preferred to be able to choose what functions I wanted to have.
- SmartUpdate, first non-bloated update software I have encountered. Only thing I miss is the option to perform a bulk update. One annoying thing is that the installation progress window is always on the top, and cannot be minimized.
- Screen is very good, bright colours. I found Windows 8's default setting of 125% scaling to be annoying, so I quickly changed it back to 100%.
- Boot times are excellent

Negatives
- Touchpad does not work in Ubuntu 14.04
- Missing the option of disabling WiFi when Ethernet cable is plugged in.
- PXE boot is not possible (really?)
- Very limited customization in the BIOS
- Option to run in Legacy+UEFI mode is not present, and change mode, you have to restore default settings in the BIOS (not that it's a big problem, as you hardly have anything to configure)
- The tilt angle on the screen is not very good.(i.e. it's not physically possible to tilt the screen. The image is good from all angles)
- Very grease loving material. Even with newly washed hands, the oils on your fingers is enough to leave very visable marks.

Other notes:
Replacing the 2,5'' HDD was a hazzle. The plastic/foam that keeps the HDD in place is adhered to the hard drive using adhesive strips. These strips tore easiliy. It should also be noted that the hard drive is not fastened to the chassis in any way. It's only held in place by bits of foam.

Installing the mSATA SSD was very easy. Remember to use the black adhesive that accompanies the manual to prevent short-circuits between the mSATA SSD and the motherboard. The mSATA slot has an awkward orientation, and short-circuits is definitly possible if the plastic is not attached on the underside of the SSD.

Two of the screws on the backplate have a black tape on them that needs to be broken in order to open the laptop. I was not able to remove the tape without breaking it. This does apparently not void your warranty, as the warranty void stickers are located on screws near the heat sink (not sure if removing the heat sink will void your warranty, did not see what the screws were holding in place).

Very responsive and quick laptop overall, but the fan-noise is a buzzkill. I will most likely run in stealth mode at university, as moderate loads cause the fans to ramp up to an audiable level in Auto-Low Fan Speed mode.

The laptop is beautiful, and for me the only thing missing on the connectivity side is a Mini-Displayport. This is only because I would like to have the future possibilty to daisy-chain my three monitors, so this is not a major issue.

Speakers are OK, and works quite well after you have installed the drivers. Windows default drivers are not that good.

Quite pleased with the keyboard, not the same response as my Thinkpad, but quite good. The touchpad buttons are a bit stiff for my liking, but tapping the touchpad is most natural in most cases.

Sidenote:
I have decided to use the following software for benchmarking:

HWInfo for CPU temps/clocks/throttling
GPU-Z for GPU temps/clocks/throttling
Furmark for GPU stress testing
Prime95 for CPU stress testing

HWInfo almost had all the logging capabilites I was looking for, but GPU-Z also logs if the GPU is throttling, and why the GPU is throttling.

EDIT: For others trying to log temperatures from the GTX970M, please note that the GPU is completely disabled when not requested, so you need to open some software that uses the dedicated GPU to be able to see temperatures etc. in GPU-Z/HWInfo.

Plan:
1. GPU stress test at all the different fan-speed modes
2. CPU stress test at all the different fan-speed modes
3. GPU+CPU stress test at all the different fan-speed modes

I will do all the three testing steps for stock paste, IC7 Diamond and Liquid Pro.

In addition, I will activate logging while I am using my laptop normally, but these results will not be processed.

I have to wait until tomorrow to do any proper benchmarking, as the temperatures in the room is quite unstable.

 

Today there is some more feedback and testers, Today is a good Sunday !

Thanks again for the reply, and you won't have to answer @bkvamme already did !

Thanks you for the reply and welcome in the Phantasus community !

Precious, my precious feed-back give it to Meeeeeeeeeeee !
Pretty glad to see someone as motivated as you ! Dammit you are going to push me into repasting

 

Hehe, my Thinkpad X220 died very abruptly last year, so I had to use the Dell E6430 provided to me from work for the last year. Needless to say, I was very happy to have a good laptop (with an SSD!).

 

Okay,

I have done all the benchmarks on stock TIM, and it does indeed thermal throttle both the CPU and GPU when on anything less that max.

What I hadn't expected, is that when the fan mode is set to full max, it is actually throttled aswell, but now due to lack of power (at least according to GPU-Z). It should be noted that the Furmark benchmark does not reflect actual usage, but it is still an interesting fact.

I will upload some preliminary results tomorrow, and will also perform a repaste to IC7, as I have gotten all the results I need using the stock TIM. My biggest hope with changing the paste is that I will avoid the fan being active at all under light load in stealth mode.

Performance in stealth mode is surprisingly good. Considering that the CPU is throttled to 1,7GHz out of 2,6-3,4GHz, it is still plenty powerful to run all of my software (so far) and even my Ubuntu VM without any fuss. Even Minecraft (with TheDarkTrilogy modpack installed) is playable, which really impressed me, as it's laggy even on my desktop (FX-6350, 16GB RAM, R9 280X).

I will look into undervolting my CPU using XTU tomorrow, again with the hope of making it totally quiet under light load. Under heavy load I kind of expect fan noise, but it's a tad bit annoying when only browsing the Web.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

"Derek S: Repasting will not void your warranty" from XoticPC

 

True dat. The sticker is only for taking the motherboard out (as far as I can tell). I repasted to IC7 now, with tremendous results.

I have a 10C decrease in CPU temps for Prime95 stresstesting in stealth mode, and the laptop is now usable in Auto-Low mode for classroom use due to reduced fan noise. Very, very satisfied with the repaste.

I will post some comparisons tonight.

 

Initial results are in for CPU stress testing.

All benchmarks were performed with an ambient temperature of 22-24 degrees.

The IC7 have actually dropped the average temps by 10C across the board. Wow. Just wow.

The CPU is not turboclocking, probably due to the intense load the Small FFTs mode in Prime95 expose it to. GPU results will follow.

Spoiler: CPU Benchmark Results

Stealth Fan Mode, Prime 95 (Small FFTs)
Stock TIM:
Max: 73
Min: 63
Avg: 69.9
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 1695.44 MHz

IC7 TIM:
Max: 62
Min: 58
Avg: 59.6
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 1695.86 MHz

Auto-Low Fan Mode, Prime 95 (Small FFTs)
Stock TIM:
Max: 91
Min: 79
Avg: 87.9
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2602.72 MHz

IC7 TIM:
Max: 79
Min: 67
Avg: 77.1
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2604.05 MHz

Auto-High Fan Mode, Prime 95 (Small FFTs)
Stock TIM:
Max: 91
Min: 79
Avg: 85.7
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2605.21 MHz

IC7 TIM:
Max: 82
Min: 75
Avg: 76.6
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2603.97 MHz

Max-Speed Fan Mode, Prime 95 (Small FFTs)
Stock TIM:
Max: 91
Min: 72
Avg: 85,7
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2597.94 MHz

IC7 TIM:
Max: 79
Min: 66
Avg: 72,1
TT (%): 0%
Avg Freq: 2611.65 MHz

Spoiler: 3D Mark Benchmarks

Comparison Graphs: http://i.imgur.com/REIguPo.png
Links:

3DMark
Stealth - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6090979
Stealth - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6100133
Auto-Low - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6091963?
Auto-Low - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6101079
Auto-High - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6092268?
Auto-High - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6100917
Max-Speed - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6093372?
Max-Speed - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6100769

3DMark 11
Stealth - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9502487
Stealth - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9505625
Auto-High - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9503073
Auto-High - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9506237
Max-Speed - Stock
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9504665
Max-Speed - IC7 Diamond
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9506214

 

Here are some photos before the repaste, and after the cleaning.

The standard TIM looks utterly awful, and I struggled a bit with removing it. Cottonsticks and isopropyl alcohol (nail polish remover in my case) did wonders.

 

Nice, that repaste seems to have had a good result for you - it almost seems mandatory with this machine.

 

What I never understood is why a reputable manufacturer would not use the best paste currently available - to save what, $1 per one machine? Probaly not even that. Arrogance? Engineering incompetence? Makes you think: OK, how about other things I am not aware of?

 

It is ridiculously stupid - it should be standard that in a "high end" machine like this, any manufacturer should use the the best paste and ensure proper application - or if not the manufacturer then at least most resellers should, especially given the effect it has on the machine's performance/temperatures.

Otherwise it's like, I dunno, a swimmer shaving their body to be more streamlined but having long hair and not putting a cap on it before a race. Just stupid.

I know places like xotic pc offer this, but that's not in every country - If I order from a place like ocuk then I'd have to do this manually, and not sure whether the warranty situation is consistent.

 

You warranty will not be voided. You can see in the pictures above that the warranty void stickers are not affected by the heat sink removal, unless you are really, really uncareful when removing the heat sink. This is the global Gigabyte warranty, so it should be fine in any country. Of course, if you are in doubt, contact Gigabyte in advance.

After you have opened the backplate, there are only six screws to undo (3x for the GPU, 3x for the CPU), and these all have springs on them to ensure the right pressure, and to avoid over tightening of the screws.

All inn all, repasting was an easy effort. If you have never done it before, I have the following tips:
- Use cotton sticks and cotton pads dipped in isopropyl alcohol to clean off the existing (and abundant) thermal goo. You're going to need quite a lot of sticks/pads so make sure you have enough.
- Don't be cheap. If you reuse the pads/sticks more than once, you end up spreading more goo.
- If you have some thin, flat piece of plastic, you can use this to _carefully_ scrape off the worst goo. Especially on the sides of the die on the GPU, as it is a pain in the ass to clean off any goo on the sides of the die.
- Put the screws to the backplate in order away from your main workspace (to avoid bumping into them). I am not sure if all have the same length/threads but there is no need to take any risks. The screws to the heat sink is not removable from the heat sink, so no worries here.

On a sidenote, I am very disappointed in the thermal compound they have used, and how poorly it was applied. On a thin laptop like this, where cooling is a definite problem, they could have significantly increased the cooling performance by using better thermal compound.

I am very curious on how the Liquid Pro will compare, especially now that the IC7 has already shaved off 10C.
Specifically, I wonder how much big the improvement is going to be, and whether the hassle of applying the Liquid Pro will be worth any performance gains.

I'll keep you posted. The liquid pro has shipped from Germany now, and shouldn't take that long to reach Norway.

 

Here are the results in from the GPU.

The IC7 definitely helps here aswell, and gets rid of all the thermal throttling on the GPU, which allows it to increase the clock speed ever so slightly.

You see this clearly in the Clock/GPU temp chart, where the stock TIM forces the GPU to downclock, whilst the IC7 keeps steady at it. The temperatures are the same, but the main difference is that it prevents downclocking of the core. The memory clock is steady in all conditons, and this is clearly locked by the fan-mode.

For the stock compound, you have thermal throttling in all conditions except the Max-Speed, but for the IC7, you are OK even at Auto-Low. The power throttling is a different concern, but as this is a stress test, I am not particulary worried about this, as this is totally unrealistic scenarios for day-to-day use.

Spoiler: Charts and stuff

Throttling Reasons by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Average Memory Frequency by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Average Core Frequency by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Core Clock/GPU Temp (Max Speed Mode) by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Core Clock/GPU Temp (Auto-High Mode) by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Core Clock/GPU Temp (Auto-Low Mode) by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Core Clock/GPU Temp (Stealth Mode) by bkvamme posted Mar 4, 2015 at 11:54 AM

 

@bkvamme :
I am very impressed by your work, effort, charts and graphs but have one final question for you...

Before & after... what's your impression of how noisily the fans run while just enjoying gaming in say, auto-low? The goal here being of course, you know... just playing a game & maintaining your FPS without it sounding like it's going to start taking off down a runway somewhere...

 

@bkvamme THANK YOU so much for those results, and yes It is pushing more and more into repasting... Also you give me a real good view of people from Norway

@Curunen and @Hephaestos I think even if those are High end product, those are still industrially build so loosing more than ten minute to do it manually might not be so efficient ... For only a couple of users who may know and understand about this sticky hardware point !