Aorus X7 DT V8 Owners Lounge

My Personal Review Of The Aorus X7 DT V8

Specs:
17'' 144hz GSync 1920x1080
8850H 4.3ghz Boost (2.6Ghz normal) LM & Fuji Pads Installed. OC'able
64GB 3000Mhz Ram (Corsair Vengance) running at 2666mhz (No Bios options for timings or speed) Copper Radiators installed
1080 GTX 8GB GDDR5X (LM and Fuji pads Installed) OC'able
2X 960 Samsung Pro 1TB (in NVME Slots & Copper Heatsinks Installed used for game installs)
1 Micron 1100 2TB Sata Drive (Boot Drive)
9260 Intel Wifi Module AC/A/G/N 2x2 NGFF With Bluetooth 5 (Upgraded From Killer 1535 for Free pulled from another machine)
USB/Power Adapter (USA)
Windows 10 X64 Pro No Bloat 1803

You can install windows 7 if you unenroll the secure boot keys and set to legacy but it doesnt have usb drivers at all! I could not get them to work unless someone backs up the ones from win 10 and then disables driver signature and tries it that way. it might crash the system though.


Price 3049 USD
Shipping Included (Which Was Free)
Vender: HIDevolution Thanks @Donald@HIDevolution

Accessories:
Amazon Basics 4 Port 3.1 Type C replicator (USB 3.0) (Odd Shaped One Not Flat)
TopMate C7 17'' Cooling Pad (USB Powered) Doesnt Eat USB
External 3D Blu Ray Burner 6X
5TB External Hard Drive (2.5 15mm LaCie) USB C
Bluetooth Gaming Mouse (Rated 24 Month Battery Life Dual AA Battery Rechargeable 3000Mah)
Bluetooth Ultra Thin Keyboard (No Numeric Pad Rated 12 Month Battery Life Internal Rechargeable Battery)

Used With:
Alienware Ultra-Wide Curved G-Sync 3440x1440 120HZ (OC'ed) Monitor for gaming. (At Home)

After a lot of testing, I have finally come up with stable results.

CPU:
Undervolt 0.155mv Underclock Boost Only to 4GHZ
This Actually Lowered temps by 8C
Ranged from 58-67C Max Full load

GPU:
OC & Undervolted Boost clock to 2025Mhz (1972mhz Most of the time, Average)
OC Memory to 5514Mhz (Zero Artifacts or Glitches, Stable)
Temps- 75C Max Fans at 100% Full Load (80% if you dont care about heat keeps at 77)

Memory:
Still haven't figured out a way to OC The memory to the 3000mhz or to change timings
I know there is virtually no difference but tighter timings are better.

Cinebench 15:
1260cb At 4.0GHZ
166 Single Core
Open GL 110.06

Thoughts:
Let me start out by saying this is a great laptop. Its portable and light. It can hold down temps and can deal with the most demanding task you can throw at it (Mine was re pasted with LM and has Fuji pads) There's not much room for overclocking as the bios comes locked and the memory/CPU/GPU configuration cannot be altered at the bios level. CPU/GPU are overclockable in windows via software but the CPU can only be overclocked by 100 MHz (Max 4.4Ghz) GPU Wise it can overclock fairly nice if you know how to do it. Price wise I feel they should give better parts (memory, bigger NVME drive, camera,speakers, wifi card) but they do make up for some with the bag of goodies if you get it.

CPU:
2.6 Base 4.3 Boost

When i first turned this bad boy on and installed windows first thing i did was install the drivers and then get me XTU and MSI Afterburner. I wanted to monitor the heat from it and notice this thing ran very hot. CPU would hit sometimes 82C when it boosted and throttle down. I immediately started to mess with the voltages and got it down to 0.130 and noticed a 4C drop on max temps.That wasn't enough for me so I dropped the boost to 4.0ghz and dropped the voltage some more this time to 0.155 and it dropped it down and amazing 7C more for a total of 11C. For me it still wasnt enough so unfortunately AORUS doesnt have a fan controller that seperate from its all in one package of Command and control that works with this particular laptop so i installed it messed with the fan controller and set to 80% at 67-76C which keeps my CPU cool at a steady 59-67C depending on load.

PS If you install Command and Control youll have to load your XTU and MSI Afterburner profiles everytime you restart your computer.....I know sucks. Maybe someone knows a workaround??

GPU:
GPU Was straight forward on temps hitting 82C on full load with the fans at 80% (Reg. settings)until i undervolted it and overclocked it. Boosted the memory clock by 500Mhz and boosted the base to 2025mhz. Now the clock does not stay at 2025 stable but stay more at a 1972-2000mhz average (still working with my voltage) at 1050mv which is base. Im sure if i boost the core voltage a bit ill be stable at those numbers but normally i wouldnt boost it more then 2000mhz to be safe. The Gpu doesn't show any artifacts or glitches at these settings. Temps are now in the lower 70s to peak 77C its not much but the longevity of GPU life will be better at these temps. Fan settings at 80%.

Memory:
It can hold 64GB of DDR4 ram at 2666mhz. Ive seen an unlocked bios before on a X6 that did have 3200mhz ram selectable, XMP and timings but i have not gone as far as unlocking my bios yet. I hope a bios upgrade comes out to at least let us mess with timings. timings are not even settable in bios which is disappointing shame if you have really nice memory with good timings and you cant set them. This (My) laptop came with CL19 2666mhz Memory which is horrible, I have Corsair 3000mhz memory at CL16 installed. I installed Copper radiators that help keep these cooled a bit more.

Maybe it can be overclocked software based?? I dont know of a program that does this.

Drives:
NVME FTW!! Get yourself top of the line drive of course if your spending this kinda of money. Samsung Pro or Evo your choice. I had 2x 1TB Samsung pro drives and it hits the advertised speeds samsung states.

Has 2 Slots NVME (Samsung 960 Pro 1TB) Reads at 3175 and Writes at 2208.

Has 1 Slot SSD (2TB Micro 1100) Reads at 531 Writes at 508

Screen:
I feel is not bright enough for me. Size is great and the 144hz with G-sync is amazing. Colors are beautiful. Calibrated right out of the box.

Battery Life:
That 10Hr advertisement is no good. This thing at best gives you 3HRs if your doing heavy gaming and you have to do alot of tweaking to get this. Normal use i get about 4Hrs depending what im doing (surf web, playing non intensive games like solitaire etc...)

To maximize battery life dim down the screen, turn off wifi and bluetooth completely, turn off the keyboard backlit, dont use usb ports or any ports for that matter (unless its for a mouse).Use Ethernet for internet. I would even turn off the speakers in a extreme case. undervolt everything. underclock CPU for more voltage saving. Skip the 2.5 Drive.

Keyboard:
Its sweet. Per-key backlit. Many different settings and colors. Feels great when pressing keys for me but my fingers hurt after a while.

Trackpad:
Looks Tacky to me do to the Aorus Eagle on it. I wish it wasnt there. I also feel windows precision drivers would be amazing for this to give it the "premium" feel. ELAN doesnt cut for me and feels lacking. Pressing on the trackpad sometimes doesnt respond well. I use a external mouse.

Wifi & Bluetooth:
I opted for the Intel 9260 Offers BT 5. (Less Power consumption) it came with a killer 1535 but i had a 9260 laying around. Im thinking about installing my 18265 tri band intel card to have WiGiG Functionality.

Speakers:
They sound ok. Im no audiophile but the bass & treble on this is not so great. After i adjusted them with viper they sound a bit better. I wish they used the speakers MSI used on their laptops those are way better then these.

Camera:
720P....at least give us 1080P! Yet i dont ever use this.

Ports & Charger:
HAS LOTS OF PORTS!!!!
They did great with the selection.
Thunderbolt 3.0 x 1, HDMI 2.0 x 1, mini DP 1.4 x 1, RJ45 x 1, USB 3.1 Gen.2 (Type-A) x 1, USB 3.1 Gen.1 (Type-A) x 3, USB 3.1 Gen.2 (Type-C) x 1, Audio Jack : Earphone (HiFi / SPDIF) x 1, MIC in x 1, SD Card Reader (UHS-II) x 1
250W Charger comes with a USB port to plug a mobile device to charge!!! What a value. The adapter is long =/. Wire is good in size.

Fan Noise, Weight & Portability:
Fans are around 54-56db if they are ramped up(80-100%). Doesnt bother me as i wear headset or got speakers loud otherwise its very quiet if left on gaming setting in aorus fan setting but is hot if not undervolted. 35-45db depending on fan speed on reg settings.
7 Pounds and easy to hold in hand. Feels cool (touch) and very sturdy. LOVES FINGERPRINTS HAVE YOUR MICROFIBER HANDY.

Promotions:
If your lucky enough youll get the bag with all the goodies (mouse, mouse pad) These are a extra plus.






Pics for validation to come and benchmarks

Sorry still working on pics,

Add some screenshots more pics to come and going to re-do cinebench new curve and gpu speed

 

Here is a review that might help.

 

My opinion is: Do both.

Yeah, Windows 10 is a piece of trash. No question about that. Pure-dee unadulterated garbage OS.

But, you can do like I do and dual boot with Windows 7 instead of having to choose. There are roughly two or three things that Windows 10 does better and/or Windows 7 cannot do (like Time Spy). That being the case, I don't mind exploiting it when it is to my advantage or I have something to gain from it. I'm just not doing it their way, and that is how the cookie crumbles. It is expendable, and I treat it that way. If I had to choose just one one, then it's a no-brainer... W7.

 

So, since this has no Optimus, what battery times could we expect for lighter usage like web browsing etc if the GTX1080 is tuned for maximum battery rather than maximum performance?

 

1.25/1.5hr at best with undervolt and all power save options enabled

 

Thanks. My original question was a bit unclear so I updated it, guessing your reply might be about gaming on battery?

Any 17” alternatives to this (ie slim performance laptops) without GSync?

 

With gaming it'll probably be around 45 mins or less.

@Falkentyne can the GT75 (17" gaming DTR from MSi) be modded to enable the "lost" mux functionality?

 

The Bios has the options for switching displays in 'System Agent' but no one has tried to see if it works or if it gives a black screen or not.
Programming a "01" into EC RAM register F1, in RW Everything is supposed to flip the Mux (requires a reboot) on the GT73VR And GT75VR. No one has tried to see what happens on the GT75 Titan.

 

That sounds very low even without Optimus, does an almost idle 1080 really draw that much? Would have guessed at least 3 hours with ”battery friendly” settings

 

What about using ThrottleStop powersaver prodile and decreasing to 60 hz, any noticable difference in battery runtimes?