Hardware Aorus X3 PLUS V5 Review

Gaming laptops have really come along in the last couple of years. I have something similar and it amazes me what it can do - beating the recent consoles in sheer performance. That 970M can run Arkham Knight on 1080p maximum settings (INCLUDING all GameWorks functions) at a very reasonable average 30+FPS.

A question for the reviewers: did the laptop have the thermal paste reapplied? In such a small chassis, the 970M can quickly start to throttle. My ultrabook has had IC Diamond applied and still gets very close to the thermal limit. It's a pity because the 970M has a shedload of overclocking headroom (we're talking something stupid, like 50%+) but these 14" chassis cannot handle the extra heat.

 

I was going to purchase one of these laptops but unfortunately there have been some major quality control issues with the batch that overclockers received. Also, the general build quality seems to be lacking so I went with a Dell XPS 15 Skylake laptop. It's not quite as suited to gaming as the Aorus but a great laptop nevertheless and I don't believe the cpu throttles either, at least the i7-6700HQ version anyway.

 

Did you get the 4k or 1080p screen, and also did you get the 56whr or 84whr battery. What do you think of it so far? I am probably going to get the 1080p with the larger battery, sorry for all the questions.

Also laptop reviews are very welcome, any chance of anymore (new asus g series and also the gl552 and other 15 inch models?)

 

I got the 4k screen with the larger battery. It's a great screen and glad I went with that compared to the 1080p one. Windows 10 scales quite nicely now so no UI problems so far. I'm getting about 6 hours general browsing out of it with the latest bios - not fantastic but not poor either, especially when you consider it's packing a 4k screen, top end Skylake cpu and a 960M graphics card. Gaming wise I haven't played anything other than Civ V, Diablo 3 and Beyond Earth, coped fine with those titles at 4k - anything more demanding will need to be 1080p for 60fps silky smoothness.

The laptop itself is really nice, feels so solid, no creaks and really premium. Just as well, considering the price I paid for it. Despite that, it's still cheaper than the Aorus (the 4k, 512 SSD version anyway), albeit with a less powerful graphics card.

 

I am worried about how reflective the 4k screen is, especially as that resolution is more of a want than a need right now (not sure what the future may hold though).

I only plan on playing things like Endless Space and Civ games on it, it's mainly for work.

I've heard that turning of windows indexing increases the battery life considerably too - fancy checking this out for me

 

Same with mine (4720HQ), hitting 90C. I think the thermal paste helps as my CPU throttles at 3.4GHz, which is close to its stated max (3.6GHz) I still find it amazing how the gap between laptops and full PCs is shrinking.

 

Seconded - more laptop reviews please!

 

Interesting, I'm always up for anything that can increase battery life. I'll let you know.

 

I looked at one of these last December - I bought a MSI GS60 6QE Ghost Pro 002-HID2 i7-6700HQ 2.6-3.5GHz 15.6" (FHD / GTX 970M 3GB / 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD / 16GB RAM) from Amazon. Similar specs, a few hundred quid cheaper.

 

If you do, maybe not just a focus on things that exceed £1000... It would be nice to know what you can get for £500-£800 as well.

 

I'd be keen to see more laptop reviews too. I bought a gaming laptop before Christmas and there weren't many reviews around that I would trust.

I went for a PC Specialist Defiance in the end (15.6" IPS screen, 6700HQ, GTX970, 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD) for £1,100 inc VAT which I thought was pretty good value, and it certainly feels like a premium machine.

 

20% overall = exceptional ???