P34w or Aorus X3+. help me decide

The razer blade gets about 5 hours under normal usage, word processing, web browsing, etc. good info though thank you.

 

does any body know anything about the standard x3 being released it should be able to game nicely at native 2k resolution? if the pricing is a trend then it should be £250 cheaper than the plus. making it approx £1549 (still high in my opinion) but I think as it was roughly what I was thinking of spending on the plus model.
saying that though, I was looking a the p34w models in a usa website. I thought actually lets look at the aorus x3 to see if they have the standard x3 yet (they didn't) the price price difference between V2 and V3. $100 difference. $2199 for 870m $2299 for the 970m. yet in the uk the price difference is £250, £1599 vs £1799 . Not the £67 difference it is between uk and usa margin. not even a full £100. £250 difference for the uk. whats that about? im livid. why can usa price the difference so narrowly and we have stupid greed margins?

 

Made even more sickening by the worse cpu in the v3. I really would love a decent 13-14" gaming laptop but with gigabytes pricing policy I am crossing them off my list. Especially as the build quality is nowhere near the premium price of these machines

 

The slight decrease on the CPU made sense. Saves battery and you have a dGPU for more demanding applications.

 

Hi ninja2000,

I agree with LVNeptune's opinion about the processer "downgrade".

I saw the Aorus X3+ v2 in the shops last week before the v3 launched this week and I was shocked that they'd put the Iris Pro with the 970M. I asked the guy what were they smoking when they decided to couple the most powerful integrated GPU with a very high end GPU on the same board. Were they trying really hard to kill the battery in record time?

But I do agree with you that they're really being greedy here. Its OBVIOUS the v3's intel chip costs quite a bit less then v2 so they could have kept the price but they actually increased it. *ouch* I still bit the bullet and bought v3 over v2 though...the advantages are too obvious to me. 970M has better performance with less power requirement, they got rid of the superfluous Iris Pro 5200. And the new hidden bonus of 3xmSATA vs 2xM.2 will save me a tonne of money for SSD capacity upgrade.

I don't understand why you're saying that the build quality is poor though. I actually like the system and I would rate it just slightly below the "Made in Japan" systems. I've got two Clevos with me and both of them are *very clearly* lower in quality compared to the Aorus. [crap keyboard, plastic look and feeling,and humongous] They're cheaper though so I'd definitely consider them in for budget range "willing to luge heavy humongous system" situations.

 

Hi sisqo,

X3 isn't even being released here.

I am making a simple guess here...I think the 970M's sweet spot is at 900 or 1080 max settings. So if you're referring to that as in 2k [1920x1080] then yes I believe it should be able to game really nice. [Which games are you referring to though. Really demanding games such as Dragon Age bring even my desktop overclocked GTX980 to its knees on 1080p]

What is it about the X3 which you like? I only went for X3 plus because of the QHD screen which gave me 900 height.
I actually like the P34 more in terms of looks myself.

Looking at USA pricing always makes me depressed. LOL

 

im not sure if the x3 wont be released here. they released x3 v2 here but from checking the online retailers I only found the x3 at overclockers and they selling it for £1299 with the 870m of course. so im gonna remain hopeful.
looking at benchmarks of the 970m its seems quite capable of going a little bit past 1080p without AA because frankly I dont think its required at 1080p and ill get extra performance from not using it too. so the answer to your question why I like the the x3? its £300 pounds difference LOL. I can miss an extra 1k resolution. I wont miss it. ive never seen it. ill just use the £300 and buy a 1TB msata 840 evo ssd. IF I don't go ahead and buy any of the aorus x3s then my 1TB will definitely be going into the p34w either way.
but its the American price difference between v2 and v3 X3 swayed my choice on what I thinks fair. and the v3 inflation I didn't think it was fair.

I wouldn't be playin dragon age and far cry 4 and assassins creed which are like power . ill be playing dying light, gta V, and rainbow six siege and the division, fifas, some battlefield. that's about that for now. I should think the specs exceeds recommended requirements. at least for gta v which I think ill give all my time too lol.

 

Has anyone found any online stores in the UK stocking the P4W yet? Prefer to more understated styling on this than the X3+ and it'll be cheaper. 3GB VRAM is fine for 1080p. Want the version with a single mSATA 512Gb SS (no physical hard disk), as will be lighter and 512Gb is plenty enough space for me

 

hi im waiting for p34w its not out until mid feb not long now lol yeah 3gb is plenty im coming form a msi gs60 860m 2gb and its fine been playing far cry 4 bf4 AC unity all fine mid settings tho but fine i like the form factor of p34w

 

Well my current computer is a lowly mid-2012 13" Macbook Air (HD4000 graphics, though at least it has a 2Ghz i7 and 8Gb RAM), so the P34w is going to seem stellar for games compared to that, LOL! Not sure whether to keep the MBA or sell it, I was originally consider the (much larger) Defiance 15.6 (a re-badged Sager NP8652 / Clevo P650SG), which would necessitate keep the MBA for work and travelling, but the P34w looks small and smart enough to cover all uses.

I also considered the HP Omen 15, which is more ultrabook like (though at 15", bigger then the P34W), but the 860m graphics are behind the curve and I would prefer a 14" laptop

 

yea same here 14'' is the sweet spot i had the 2013 air 11 it was good but sucks for gaming i gave it to the wife looking at the p34w it looks like an ultrabook but its a little beast kicking out a gtx 970m its comparable to almost my desktop gtx 780 that i bought for about £400 not so long ago and the bezel of the msi gs60 is ugly

 

How's the build quality on the P34w? Am not expecting it to be in the same league as Apple's products, but do Gigabyte do a decent enough job?

 

How are the temps in these things under heavy load? Still waiting for a v3 review before I make my decision. Also still debating 3 vram vs 6 vram.

 

Why do you need 6Gb VRAM? Will you be running a large external monitor?

 

Yeah I like the P34W heaps too, it was my first choice and would still be except I had to compromise to get the Aorus for the reason being stated below. It's so professional looking! [And being 1.7kg really helps. It's an ultra portable powerhouse]

The drawback about the P34W for my case though [And because it's very individual so it would probably not apply for you] is the lack of a dispayPort. I am using dPort to have multiple monitor output in my "Office Plugged in" set up and the P34W only has a single digital HDMI output.

 

This is naturally very individual. I see so many guys commenting that ultra portable power notebooks are silly considering you can get a much heavier, bigger, cooler and powerful laptop for the same price.

But I personally definitely concur with you. LOL My sweet spot is 13-14 inch as well.
On top of that, I've also noticed that my sweet spot for resolution is 900 in height for a 13-14" 16:9 display. Any less and you get too little information on the screen. Any more and the things start to get tiny and you need to mess around with scaling which often causes more grief than it's worth.

 

I hear people in this thread and other Gigabyte/Aorus threads slamming the build quality while I am quite impressed with it.
In a post earlier, I gave a personal opinion that the best products in terms of build quality are Sony[Made in Japan models ONLY]/Apple followed by the Aorus and then Clevo/Acer/etc and the worst is ironically Samsung. Samsung makes great looking notebooks/laptops sold for a premium price that fail really quickly.

If the Aorus quality is anything similar to Gigabyte, my guess is it's pretty decent.

My opinion is that you need to look at a few of the video reviews or at least those with lots of pictures to come to a conclusion yourself.
At the very least look out for "Pet peeves". Some people hated the keyboard for P34 saying it flexes. So if it's a big thing to you I wouldn't go near it.

Nothing beats being able to see and touch the systems in a local shop if you have one though. And that was why I ultimately bought one from the store even if I could save money by ordering it online.

 

6Gb VRAM is applicable for a few very recent games where the performance improves with more VRAM even for FullHD. [I think Watch Dogs is one] so I can see why anyone would want "more VRAM".

3Gb is more than sufficient to drive 3 external screens if you're not gaming on those screens so it was not an issue to me but I can see why another individual would demand for more VRAM.

 

Because some titles now require more than 3gb so it's becoming more common and I want this laptop to last me 4-5 years. I push games to my 60" TV at home and play with a Xbox controller. Keeps me from having to buy a console.

 

Hi Logs,

Can you point out just 2 games which require more than 3Gb?
I have never ever heard of a single game which requires that much VRAM honest and I'd like to know where you get the idea games require that much VRAM.

The only people who go for really high amounts of VRAM are those who
1) Run games at 4k...and they would do doing that with GTX980 SLI machines.
2) Run an insane amount of texture packs like Skyrim high res texture pack.

In both those instances, the 970M would be brought to its knees way before the lack of VRAM is going to make any difference. Also for point 1, it doesn't even apply for the P34W v3 at all. P34W is incapable of 4K output to begin with due to the lack of dPort.

 

Almost everything shipped in the last year or so has been at least hdmi 1.4 which allows 4k over HDMI.

 

I stand corrected.
So the P34W is indeed capable of a single 4K output through HDMI 1.4

Speaking of dPort vs HDMI, it'd be very interesting to see if someone could show us how Gigabtye did their G-Sync/Freesync demonstration using displayPort during a recent trade show.

 

Did a compilation from a website called Gamegpu.ru one month ago :

 

looks like gentech and xoticpc are have them in stock. doesn't say pre-order. it says buy now. but I had a feeling they was close. because a lot of retailers have just put a sale of the gigabyte line. and aorus models for those not already selling X3 V3.

 

Just got a call from HIDEvo to confirm some stuff they said as long as there are no delays they should ship it today. Ground shipping from them to me is 1 day so I should have it tomorrow. Hopefully.

 

XoticPC still says pre-order when you go to the configuration page.

 

lucky you. i did check hidevolution but it said pre order on the screen. lucky you if so. it would of been in time for me with dying light with its insane requirements. ill have fun with my U core and 8750m which is the same performance between the desktop 7730 DDR3 & GDDR5 version which is not even its "minimum" requirement LOL

well i checked it again. i saw no pre order option. just straight buy it uptill the shipping locition part. so i dunno. im in the uk if that makes a difference to the because of the time difference.

 

I preordered with XoticPC 2 weeks ago and now I have moved to Phase 1 (Payment Processed & Inventory Gathering). Woohoo! They finally got the shipment from Gigabyte. Looking for that Phase 2 (Inventory Allocation) email next...

 

I think half this thread is on the wrong page. I ordered the Aorus X3+ V3

 

LOL oh yeah i think its because people here dont know what they want but its out of the two. i think im holding out for the p34w only because i want to see the price and i can have a hard drive for storage as ill be happy with 1TB msata single drive where as theres 3 drives to occupy in raid in the x3 which means rediculously too much money to spend. and there was a pic of a guy on here that had the screen bezel coming apart which eh said was because of normal usage of holding the lid in the "normal" place to close it as opposed to the middle of the scrren which would refrain it from happening. and test that login on my current laptop is not really cutting it for me.
However if overclockers had one of their daily deals where you can save a some money on a x3 V3 (hint hint overclockers ) then i would certainly make purchase if its at least 10% of selling price. LOL

so in a way im still quite undecided really. just holding out on a p34w 1st. if thats long enoug h and then razer balde says ok we are shipping to uk now. ill just u-turn completly like i was under the spell of a new master lol.

 

Aorus X3+ V3 shipped. Will be here tomorrow unless we have some crazy weather on the West Coast.

 

That's great. I would like a second take on battery life before crossing this off my list. Hopefully you can do that for me.

 

I am contemplating between P34W v3 (in stock at Gentech) and Auros Plus, favoring the later for its bad-axx double vents and the custom keys but I heard alot of hassles with the 3K screen where some games do not downscale properly and not being practical.

For owners and people who are considering Auros, what's your thoughts and why wouldn't you go with P34W v3 which is cheaper?

 

Hi Amal,

I saw that post of yours in that thread. What you just listed out is merely a list of games that may benefit from more RAM as they use more textures loaded into it. And that's what I've said earlier...I can understand why some people would like more of it. [I should have linked to your post actually]
Every single one of them can run with even 2Gb of VRAM so it's not a requirement.
The drop in VRAM was done due to rumours that 6Gb causes more heat issues therefore if you're attempting those ultra high resolution ultra high textures you're kind of missing the point anyway. [Heat is going to auto throttle the GPU and you're doing to lose more FPS even if you think frying your GPU isn't an issue.]
I've always known that the ultimate ultra light, extreme portable, mega powerful system can't truly exist, it's always a compromise here and there. The Sager/Clevo, for example, compromised size and weight for their superior upgrade choices and improved heat management.

I still haven't heard of a game which requires more than 3Gb of VRAM like I said.

 

Hi Shermansee,

LOL
I actually really dislike that "bad double vent" which you are drawn to!
Imagine being in a conference room with 6 colleagues facing you and you have those vents like a supercharged muscle car facing them. LOL
The reason why I went for Aorus X3+ were for the two benefits.
1) 14" screen in multiple of 900. I actually use the notebook at 900 instead of 1800. There is zero bluriness and games run way better at 900. For office work 900 is actually perfect size for 14". If I wanted 1080, I'd go for 17". 3k and 4k at 13/14" ...actually does anyone even read stuff at such high resolutions?
2) displayPort. This is THE ultimate reason. I can't believe why the P34W which has horsepower to run 4 external screens [Yeah, I'm not going to squint at a 14" in the office] doesn't have the ability to drive them due to the lack of the port.

I have am guessing [Pure guess] that the X3 actually has better cooling due to those aggressive vents. That's because they had to reduce VRAM for the P34W to 3 but the X3 remains at 6.

I was actually compromising by going for the Aorus X3+, I prefer the subtle look of the P34W. By the looks of it, you're going to be a much happier X3+ owner compared to me. [Except for the screen. 1800 is the perfect screen for me and you may not like it]

 

Every website still has the P34 listed at 6GB.

Also, package was received by fedex after pickup. Getting it Wednesday most likely now.

 

Hi whwtan,

I hope you are right. I have actually Pre-ordered the P34W v3.
But what if loading more and higher texture does make a big different in Graphics Quality in some games without affecting much performance?
It is still too early to tell if more new games coming out in the future does or doesn't eat more VRAM. Especially PS4 port games.

MSI GS60 with GTX 970M 6GB doesn't show any extra heat over the GTX 970M 3GB though.
It is quite thin and also very light for a 15.6", but not as portable as the P34W.

 

Well I'm hoping this week and the next will have some decent reviews on both machines so I can make my final decision. It's really going to be around 300 bucks difference when it comes down to it. Like to see some build quality comparisons and temps, fps. Also would love to know how the stock wireless cards are doing and if it would be a wise upgrade for the killer card.

 

LOL
Hi Amal,

Actually, I hope the 3Gb specs are wrong and that you do get 6Gb, then all the friendly debate is purely academic. I'd much rather P34W get the 6Gb than not, however, I didn't want potential buyers to veer away just because it's 3Gb.

I was also very interested in the MSI GS60 Ghost. It was over 2kg but I did accept that it's a much physically bigger screen.
Unfortunately the keyboard has a silly numpad which means your hands would be off the screen center [Do these guys who make the laptops actually use them?] and I understand it's a 4K 48Hz screen. LOL

Good point about the GS60 970M heat. I do hope that all 970M implementations are 6Gb so that anyone who is making a decision doesn't have to care about how much VRAM the 970M has.

 

This is exciting.

You'll be able to give us a better opinion of Razer Blade 14 vs X3+.
I've seen the Blade 14 and I do like the looks of it.

Oh and the battery life of Blade 14 vs X3+ as well.

 

Yeah, wish they are wrong, and still stick to 6GB.

I have no interest for the MSI GS60 at all. It's too big for me.
Just wanted to share that they(thin and light(for its size)) are capable of handling at quite a good temperature.

Still sticking with the P34W. Will have to live with it even if it comes with 3GB.

 

Just confirmed with HIDevolution. They have 3gb vram.

 

i actually believe it like i saw at the start of jan but there might be some places that might have "BOOSTED" VRAM based off this thread. which had a gigabyte representative replying about the product confirming 6gb Vram. but its hard to tell because they could of changed it since hence the slight delay in release.

p34w v3 with boosted Vram - Overclockers UK Forums

 

Hi everyone,

We have a winner, @fanchiuho just got the P34W, with only 3gb of GPU RAM. But it doesn't mean there is not chance of another version.

If you want to ask him questions, you can go there. And you can check his Chinese review here. He said he will make an english version of it, so I will link it to you as soon as found.

Have a nice end of weekend.

 

This was confirmed last week already. A person on here got theirs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/p34g-v3-news.762703/page-13#post-9911422

 

Thanks for the info @LVNeptune , I didn't found it for now but as a newbie I have to apologize, and ask you for the links nicely enough.
Also It seems that he is the first one to be motivated to create a review about it (his Chinese version looks really neat), and answer specifics questions.
He even might be a reseller, I don't care as he is ready to show us the real stuff in any angles (he already opened up the ram, and say he is ready to go further )
Which will help me to wait until mine finally arrived, after two too long month of awaiting...
P.S. : You list that you have (or will buy) an AorusX3+V3 with a 970M in it ? do you have link for it, cause for now I only found it with the 870M version in it. Thanks in advance.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/received-my-x3-v3-review-details-inside.770210/ review