Gigabyte Aero 15 X Gaming Notebook With GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q Graphics
- Thread starter JimboJet
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@Atom80 - I think given the wait for the 4K model plus having weighed up the actual benefits of it over the 1080p, I’m leaning towards ordering the 1080p model just now and using the extra £ for an extra 16Gb of RAM.
Am I right in thinking it has to be a SODIMM chip? The only one I can see on OCUK is: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...n-sodimm-module-hx426s15ib2-16-my-28h-ks.html
This is showing up as a pre-order.
Am I right in thinking it has to be a SODIMM chip? The only one I can see on OCUK is: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...n-sodimm-module-hx426s15ib2-16-my-28h-ks.html
This is showing up as a pre-order.
Hi Mark - yes you are correct, SODIMM chip.
The link you sent is showing 1 in stock.....HERE
Regards,
Gigabyte UK NB Team
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Oh weird - still showing as ‘pre-order’ when I look at it. Would you agree that I’ll see more benefit going with 1080/extra SSD/extra RAM than 4K with just extra SSD if I always had my previous 4K scaled to 200% anyway?
Conscious of the benefit of the 144Hz as well and then also the fact I could get the laptop immediately and not have to wait until very close to when I fly to Australia.
Conscious of the benefit of the 144Hz as well and then also the fact I could get the laptop immediately and not have to wait until very close to when I fly to Australia.
I was pretty worried about going from a Macbook "retina" screen to a 1080p screen, but my worries were completely unfounded. At 15" you cannot see individual pixels at all on the 1080p screen, the refresh rate is great, and the brightness is superb.
As a side note: the machine ships with windows scaling at 120%. I changed it to 100% to give more real estate.
As a side note: the machine ships with windows scaling at 120%. I changed it to 100% to give more real estate.
An update on this. Gigabyte has released updated keyboard drivers that have resolved the issue! Very quick response from their tech team.
I'm really enjoying this machine. The amount of power in such a small package is mind blowing compared to what I was on before.
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Cool that’s good to hear! Looking forward to getting it now.
Well you lose colour accuracy going for the 1080p screen option over 4k.
I don't personally think 144Hz makes much off a difference - but I plan to use it docked mostly anyway.
For battery life 1080p is better for using out and about.
But 4k is cool for watching 4k content in bed I imagine.
And if you want to do any editing or photo work the higher res/real estate and colour accuracy of the 4k screen all help.
And RAM can easily be added later.
You'll cope fine with 16GB I imagine and can just add another 16GB DIMM when there's a good deal or you want to.
SSD prices are coming down - I guess NAND prices are doing down.
So expect to see more SSD deals.
Again that can be added later really.
Personally I'd go for 4k I think.
But then I'm going to wait for the inevitable refresh around black friday with the next Nvidia card - let's call it the GTX 1170 for now.
May as well given how long I've waited, that it's only around 6 months away now, the current price is very high, and there are lots of driver and other issues to deal with at the moment.
You guys can Beta test that stuff if you like
I don't personally think 144Hz makes much off a difference - but I plan to use it docked mostly anyway.
For battery life 1080p is better for using out and about.
But 4k is cool for watching 4k content in bed I imagine.
And if you want to do any editing or photo work the higher res/real estate and colour accuracy of the 4k screen all help.
And RAM can easily be added later.
You'll cope fine with 16GB I imagine and can just add another 16GB DIMM when there's a good deal or you want to.
SSD prices are coming down - I guess NAND prices are doing down.
So expect to see more SSD deals.
Again that can be added later really.
Personally I'd go for 4k I think.
But then I'm going to wait for the inevitable refresh around black friday with the next Nvidia card - let's call it the GTX 1170 for now.
May as well given how long I've waited, that it's only around 6 months away now, the current price is very high, and there are lots of driver and other issues to deal with at the moment.
You guys can Beta test that stuff if you like
That wouldn't be possible unless you wanted a dark patch when looking at your screen where the logo is.
Obviously it can't be RGB customisable or independently dimable - as it's the screen backlight.
Do you expect them to have a sheet between the screen backlight and the logo, followed by another set of LEDs? Just to have a glowing logo?
Would be an expensive waste, and make the screen thicker.
What they've done unless I'm wrong about this is just "take advantage" of the screen backlight by making a window to it effectively in the form of the logo.
Some transparent plastic that lets the backlight light through.
Lights at night bother me but not sure if this would as the laptop would be off - and in another room anyway I imagine.
But yeah, otherwise I'd just skin it / mask it.
I took the plunge and ordered one of these on Thursday last week, which arrived promptly as ever on Friday. My requirements for a machine were as follows:-
- Needs to be usable as a work laptop, so subtle chassis and the ability to blend into the workplace was key, as was size, portability and battery life. For work I mainly use productivity apps with a couple of VMs for certain applications to run inside.
- Needs to be able to play games at reasonable quality and fps, as I spend a lot of time away from home in hotels for work
- Needs to be 1080p, as one of the key applications I use does not play nicely with windows scaling at all
- Needs to have a 10key as I play certain games left handed and need the extra keys
- Ideally fan noise is not unbearable when under gaming load, but definitely needs to be quiet during productivity use
My opinion/points to note:-
- Looks wise its a plain black chassis so will not look out of place in an office. It is incredibly light compared to other gaming laptops I've owned in the past. Annoyingly Gigabyte have stuck a bunch of stickers on the chassis telling me the specification of the machine. I don't need this, I knew the specs when I ordered it! I haven't tried to remove it yet but will do so eventually.
- The screen is excellent, with good colours and viewing angles. A narrow bezel makes it looks very much like the Dell XPS models, although thankfully the screen is matt rather than glossy like on my XPS13 which I much prefer.
- Gaming performance is very good, everything I'd hoped for in a machine of this size
- The keyboard is reasonable. I have not experienced any of the chatter issues that have been reported with this model in the past which is good. The LED lighting on the right shift key is very dull, and the 'C' key shows a red tinge even when set to all white. However these are minor annoyances that I can ignore. The keyboard is a little cramped due to the fact its a full 10key layout in a 15 inch chassis, but I knew this would be a compromise I'd have to live with and muscle memory will soon sort that out.
- The touchpad is suprisingly good. I normally hate windows touchpads but this one is actually usable.
- In quiet mode, the machine is silent during productivity use, however the fans are very noisy in normal and gaming configurations when under load. Luckily, the performance in silent mode is actually not too bad, with bearable frame rates on a couple of key games that I play regularly. To be fair, it is quieter than the Alienware 17 R4 I tried last year in a package half the size and weight, so perhaps I am being unrealistic in my expectations.
- The gigabyte bundled software (Smart Manager, Smart Update) are pretty shoddy to be honest. They look like they were designed in a different era when user experience was not a thing. Also, you can tell when Smart Manager is applying its settings on startup as there are micro pauses as each config item is set. I'd expect better on a machine of this cost. The Smart Update application takes ages to load, and did not work until it had been updated itself. The feedback this application gave when it failed to install was non-existant. I am reluctant to clean install windows on this machine in case some of this stuff fails to re-install correctly but really in this day and age, I'd expect a top end machine to be as clean as possible upon receipt.
- Someone else above noted the windows scaling was set to 120%. Why on a 1080p screen this is needed I have no idea. I also discovered in the Intel graphics settings that I had to change a scaling setting to prevent certain text items looking blurred. once these were sorted the image was very crisp.
- I hadn't noticed the Gigabyte logo on the lid being lit, but I'll be checking it later. I agree with JimboJet, this should really be configurable as I do not want to blind the person sitting opposite me in the office with my lid. This was one plus with the Alienware, you could turn the lid lights off!
- I'd read some reviews commenting on the springiness of the screen hinge. It is not 100% rock solid, but it does not move under normal use, only if you give it a good shake (and really, who does this?) I assume its because the thermal design relies on some clearance for the vents at the back. Its certainly not something I feel needs to be of concern.
Anyway, there's my thoughts! Overall I'm very happy with it.
- Needs to be usable as a work laptop, so subtle chassis and the ability to blend into the workplace was key, as was size, portability and battery life. For work I mainly use productivity apps with a couple of VMs for certain applications to run inside.
- Needs to be able to play games at reasonable quality and fps, as I spend a lot of time away from home in hotels for work
- Needs to be 1080p, as one of the key applications I use does not play nicely with windows scaling at all
- Needs to have a 10key as I play certain games left handed and need the extra keys
- Ideally fan noise is not unbearable when under gaming load, but definitely needs to be quiet during productivity use
My opinion/points to note:-
- Looks wise its a plain black chassis so will not look out of place in an office. It is incredibly light compared to other gaming laptops I've owned in the past. Annoyingly Gigabyte have stuck a bunch of stickers on the chassis telling me the specification of the machine. I don't need this, I knew the specs when I ordered it! I haven't tried to remove it yet but will do so eventually.
- The screen is excellent, with good colours and viewing angles. A narrow bezel makes it looks very much like the Dell XPS models, although thankfully the screen is matt rather than glossy like on my XPS13 which I much prefer.
- Gaming performance is very good, everything I'd hoped for in a machine of this size
- The keyboard is reasonable. I have not experienced any of the chatter issues that have been reported with this model in the past which is good. The LED lighting on the right shift key is very dull, and the 'C' key shows a red tinge even when set to all white. However these are minor annoyances that I can ignore. The keyboard is a little cramped due to the fact its a full 10key layout in a 15 inch chassis, but I knew this would be a compromise I'd have to live with and muscle memory will soon sort that out.
- The touchpad is suprisingly good. I normally hate windows touchpads but this one is actually usable.
- In quiet mode, the machine is silent during productivity use, however the fans are very noisy in normal and gaming configurations when under load. Luckily, the performance in silent mode is actually not too bad, with bearable frame rates on a couple of key games that I play regularly. To be fair, it is quieter than the Alienware 17 R4 I tried last year in a package half the size and weight, so perhaps I am being unrealistic in my expectations.
- The gigabyte bundled software (Smart Manager, Smart Update) are pretty shoddy to be honest. They look like they were designed in a different era when user experience was not a thing. Also, you can tell when Smart Manager is applying its settings on startup as there are micro pauses as each config item is set. I'd expect better on a machine of this cost. The Smart Update application takes ages to load, and did not work until it had been updated itself. The feedback this application gave when it failed to install was non-existant. I am reluctant to clean install windows on this machine in case some of this stuff fails to re-install correctly but really in this day and age, I'd expect a top end machine to be as clean as possible upon receipt.
- Someone else above noted the windows scaling was set to 120%. Why on a 1080p screen this is needed I have no idea. I also discovered in the Intel graphics settings that I had to change a scaling setting to prevent certain text items looking blurred. once these were sorted the image was very crisp.
- I hadn't noticed the Gigabyte logo on the lid being lit, but I'll be checking it later. I agree with JimboJet, this should really be configurable as I do not want to blind the person sitting opposite me in the office with my lid. This was one plus with the Alienware, you could turn the lid lights off!
- I'd read some reviews commenting on the springiness of the screen hinge. It is not 100% rock solid, but it does not move under normal use, only if you give it a good shake (and really, who does this?) I assume its because the thermal design relies on some clearance for the vents at the back. Its certainly not something I feel needs to be of concern.
Anyway, there's my thoughts! Overall I'm very happy with it.
I have taken the Pantone and spec stickers off, they came away no problems or residue.
Contrary to the reviews I've seen, I feel the fan noise is tolerable for a machine of this spec and far better than the 3 alienwares I've had previously. Granted, I've only played World of tanks so far so it hasn't pushed the thermal limits yet. In any case, I usually use headphones for gaming which have great sound quality from the 3.5mm jack (though im far from an audiophile)
Your findings on the smart update software are as mine. Has been buggy and a little cumbersome, but I suppose does the job even if it needs a couple of attempts at times. I'm not entirely sure the smart manager is that at all, there is little that can't be achieved through windows settings or keyboard hotkey's easily enough anyway, so I may well uninstall this.
There's a fair amount of irrelevant bloatware such as candy crush saga and a few other such items which despite uninstalling still reside in the start menu... wondering how/if it's possible to do a clean install from included media/ssd??
How much is a clean win 10 install usually? I had 40.5gb used of the 512gb toshiba m2 drive before I added any of my own software and this seems a little too much.
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Hi @Brok - thanks for the mostly positive comments and observations - already sent over elements to our R&D chpas for comments.
Glad the machine meets your expectations and surpassed them in parts
May you continue to enjoy,
Regards,
Gigabyte UK NB Team
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Hi @JimboJet - as per (multiple) posts to Brok - thanks for the feedback, has been shared with HQ, and will be taken on board.
Will come back with any pertinent points we hear back on.
Thanks guys,
Gigabyte UK NB Team,
Just realised the right shift key backlight doesn't work at all, the Tab key is very feint but I haven't had any repeated key press issues as yet and am running the latest firmware.
Noise whilst gaming is a little more noticeable than my last post and the underside gets pretty warm. I've taken to propping up the rear a little with a length of dowel rod to allow a little more air to circulate as I've done with previous machines to help.
Noise whilst gaming is a little more noticeable than my last post and the underside gets pretty warm. I've taken to propping up the rear a little with a length of dowel rod to allow a little more air to circulate as I've done with previous machines to help.
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