new Gigabyte P35K

I still want this laptop.. no doubt. I also don't believe it's solely a shipping issue like they claim. At this point, I can only hope mine gets to me unscathed, so I can reinforce it myself. Right now there are just no other suitable options out there for me.

 

The Samsung Ativ Book 8 is almost identical, with a Radeon graphics card that's almost as good as the 765 (on game-debate.com it's rated a 7 while the 765 is rated an 8). It's a tacky silver though with no black option. Other than that it's pretty good and I'm almost considering it. PLEASE tell me when you get your laptop in and what, if anything, you do to reinforce it. Frankly, I don't care if I have to reinforce it myself--I'm quite the DIY'er.

 

There is a reason why companies don't make slim gaming machines, you just can't cram that many components into such a small space and cool / power all the components. Technology has improved and a few companies are taking this as an advantage to be one of the first to reach this market. Also at the moment this a very small niche market, I feel like it's growing and I'm sure that next year there will be a couple more slim gaming laptops seeking into the market.

Anyways keep in mind that heat for electronics is bad, if this laptop runs hot expect a short life span. That's why I suggest having either:
A. portable laptop with a gaming desktop
B. A bulky gaming laptop

And just a PSA first generation products always have an issue or two.
Apples MacBook Pro retina had a ghosting issue with their displays, also a small chassis issue that I can't remember ATM.

 

I feel GenTech got in trouble for their remarks hence lack of "Bending" video and other comments.

 

Part of the reason I (personally) have been following the P35K and this forum for months now is because of this... there really isn't much out there for this market with current-gen chips. Everyone should be offering a does-it-all Haswell powerhouse in a slim form like the P35K, but that's not where consumer focus is.


To be honest, I started 'waiting' for the right laptop in Jan/Feb 2013. I was waiting for the Haswell release in June, which I thought would be a new era for laptop hardware. It was really the era of Ultrabooks.

My suggestions based on my research:

Gigabyte P35K / P34G
Dell XPS 15 9530 (new haswell)
Samsung Ativ Book 8 with 8870m
Lenovo Y410p / Y510p
Wait for a new option Lenovo, Samsung, or Asus

Actually, here's a spreadsheet that compares new 15" gaming laptops quite well, it has been updated recently too: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...dkMG8yRUs1Ykh6N19aVlE&disco=AAAAAGG7iZM#gid=0

 

Don't forget the p25w

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Only .3cm thicker than the Lenovo with better cooling and better gpu
Just mind the yellow.

 

Update: Gigabyte is working on a rework version with much stronger support under the weak spot, ETA of the shipment is under 2 weeks. I've decide to wait for the new shipment and do the video.

Long time no see Quad.

 

I agree... after seeing this thread and the amount of effort Gentech has put forth.. I know where I'll be placing my order. And not to be a hater or anything, but XoticPC didn't even email me back some info I requested or get back in touch with me regarding a few things I had asked even though I told them I would be placing order... I had almost made up my mind to go with the XPS 15 because I didn't think they would be able to get a revised version of it out soon. 2 weeks is awesome and I can hold out that long to see how it compares to XPS 15.

Thanks Gentech for pushing the issue so hard and being a good contribution to the community.

 

Why don't they remove the optical bay and fill the resulting space with battery cells? I personally don't need an optical drive or another hdd in that bay. One hdd and one m.2 pcie ssd would be perfect.
They also made a pretty stupid decision with the looks of the p25w. I guess the chinese people have a very different opinion about how flashy things should be.

 

Just to throw in a counterpoint, when I emailed XoticPC about whether or not the optical drive was included with the P35K (at the time, it wasn't shown), I got a very quick response and the customization page was updated to include the optical drive almost immediately. That being said, I may still order from GenTechPC just out of appreciation for all the hard work they've put in supporting the community in getting Gigabyte to admit that there was a problem and fix it correctly instead of just blaming it on shipping.

 

Many thanks for that. It's the right decision by Gigabyte. OK, it takes longer for the laptop to arrive, but will be much sturdier once it gets here.

 

+1 to your amazingly nice post that was only slightly darkened by its twin! Totally agree! Except for the part about Xotic--the rep I talked to was very fast to reply and was willing to price match GenTech's free compound upgrade and $55 RAM upgrade. But GenTech was so helpful, I might just order from them! It'll probably be more expensive (No free shipping and not sure about a cash discount) but I know they'll do it the right way the first time. (And I know I'll be getting the updated model from them since they never even sold any of the earlier ones)

I'm so glad I waited another day Guess I might not need this anymore, although still cool (This one's reinforced with metal rods for looks and strength)

 

Hopefully their "fix" doesn't cause more problems like hyper brittleness in the plastic casing. I'm half expecting the laptop to combust on impact now. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the support punctured the battery and did cause a fire hazard.

Gentech offers the 3% cash discount and free shipping. But they also offer a 2% student/military discount (non stackable). I just got a new credit card with spending bonuses so I couldn't use the cash discount but student discount + 1% cashback = 3% anyway, plus it'll put me over the top for a promotional bonus. I tried getting xotic to throw in some free games that they typically offer with certain video card/CPU purchases but talking to their rep was a bad experience. It's probably a good idea to get the free thermal compound upgrade now since it'll mean that someone actually opens the box to make sure that your laptop isn't in pieces. I'm glad that gigabyte acknowledged the problem and is doing something about it, two weeks now isn't as bad as a one month RMA process 3 months into the life of the laptop.

 

New MacBooks are looking pretty good, especially with the price reduction.

 

Yes they are. No customization, though. What makes me sad is they didn't update (in fact, phased out) the 15" non-Retina MBP. It still had a "removable" battery and upgradeable RAM.

Anyone seen the Gigabyte U35F? Doesn't look like Xotic or GenTech sell it, but it looks like a slightly less powerful p35k. What you think?

 

Your pessimism makes me lol.

 

Well my order just went to Phase 7 - Packaged and Shipped. So while I wasn't able to get a response from Xoticpc about Gentech's findings from Gigabyte about their reinforcement plan... I suppose this at least means my unit was "ok" when it was shipped out.

 

Let's hope it doesn't damage from shipping cause xotic won't replace it until they get insurance money from the shipping company which takes 3 weeks. If it's damaged you are looking at 4-5 weeks wait my friend for refund or exchange.... Good luck. That's the reason I don't like exotic is cause of their return policy.....

 

And I am talking from past roommate experience.... They took 3 weeks to collect the money and 1 week for a new one. At the time I never believed in buying laptops online cause I rather see them in front of me. But now ideally I really want the p35k so I'm getting it from gentech cause I trust them and heard a lot of good stuff about them. Plus the 15 day guarantee return exchange policy. Labour and upgrades can't be refunded so remember that well

 

One reason to buy the vanilla laptop and upgrade it yourself. Although compound is hard to do yourself ;P

 

Compound is the easiest and I rather do it myself :/ too bad if I do it will void my warranty..... but I will after like a year and half or so..... im buying it stock cf1 then upgrading to 16gb, 256gb msata and 2x 1tb hdd. I wont use the cd drive so I don't care. if someone wants to buy my stock 750gb let me know

 

Didn't know how hard it'd be for a laptop though. Do you recommend any specific brand of compound? If I did it myself I was going to go for Arctic MX2 or Silver 5.

EDIT: Reading up I've found a lot of people say that Arctic Silver doesn't hold a candle to IC Diamond. Considering GenTech will apply this for free, I'm considering it. Just sayin.

 

I did a repaste with arctic like 5 years ago on my laptop. It dropped the temps about 10 degC on the video card at load and like 3-4 at idle. I think the stuff they use generically is put on by machine and isn't that great. The hardest part about pasting yourself is making sure you've cleaned off the old stuff beforehand. Of course when someone offers to do it free for you and not void your warranty you'd be crazy not to take them up on it.

 

From what I understood, I thought only authorized gigabyte service centers could put in additional drives and repaste while keeping warranty.
I thought resellers offered those upgrades under the condition it is an aftermarket upgrade, with warranty not necessarily continuing on in some situations.

 

I'm pretty sure GentechPC is an authorized to make modifications, as well as XoticPC. Also it doesn't appear as if anything they're doing would tamper with the warranty sticker.

 

All that is affected by thfe sticker is the heatsink mount.

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So you're saying we can pretty much do anything to it without voiding the warranty if we're careful?

 

Pretty much, as long as you can undo the change if it breaks and you want to send it back for warranty repair. I'm not sure how gigabyte is but I'd hope they're not out to get people who try to send their laptop to get fixed.

 

I'll see if GenTech can include the old wireless card they replace so I can put it back if I have to send it in.

 

I think if you include your order information when you submit your warranty replacement they won't count it against you. GentechPC should be an authorized repair center so you shouldn't have a problem, unless gigabyte is lazy and just give you a replacement laptop without any of your old parts.

 

If you put custom stuff on your laptop you have too RMA it to the reseller...

 

Well, my case logic sleeve (thanks Retroceded) and my Everki Advance laptop bag came in from Amazon today. According to tracking, my laptop is likely to hit the border/customs in Canada tonight. So I should have it by Monday or Tuesday.

 

My laptop should also be coming in Monday
A lot of the parts look very similar (keyboard and trackpad) to the P35K, so I'll leave a comment about it here.

I also got the case logic sleeve for my laptop, should fit the p25w I managed to stick in my 4.5 cm textbook in the sleeve.

 

So is this thing aluminum or plastic? Any help would be great.

 

Both. Pressed alu not milled

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Thanx, do you think it is as nice as the Razer or GS70.??

 

Where did you hear about the rework version? Can you provide a link to the source?

 

Gentech is the source. . .

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I know. My question was if GenTech heard that from Gigabyte directly, cos I can't find a public statement.

 

I'm sure he said he was talking to his rep

 

gigabyte isnt going to go in public and say we messed up lol thats just crazy and bad for there rep......
they just take them back and send new ones simple as that......

 

If they don't say it publicly that they are going to reinforce it then the only way to know is by taking it apart and comparing it with the pre-reinforced models. Still skeptical about them reinforcing it until I see some proof. For all we know they could be telling us that they are going to reinforce it just to keep us from continuing to call them out on the laptop's defect.

 

I don't think Gigabyte is THAT bad. If they did stuff like that, they'd probably be out of business by now.

 

Gigabyte has never been the greatest at the whole laptop business. I remember the u2442 being plagued with early availability issues. I have a feeling that the p35k will go down as one of the companies biggest failures and heads will roll for it. They first missed a critical launch window (school start, late August-early September) and now both the p35k and to a lesser extent the p34g are plagued with quality control issues. While they're in a position to sell a lot of units, the amount of time and effort into getting the first batch out probably is cutting into their profits by a significant amount.

 

Number one graphics and motherboard manufacturers Comon they are smarter than that

 

You know how they didn't give out a bag with the p35k like the other models ? Well since the bending problem occurred...... Now they can provide a bag that says on the front "warning p35k inside, walk gently by it" ��

 

so are these really that cheaply built?