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Review: Aorus X9

by Parm Mann on 19 October 2017, 08:01

Tags: AORUS, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadmqy

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Conclusion

...when you consider the industry's growing indifference to multiple GPUs, the X9 would make most sense housing a single GTX 1080 instead of SLI.

The challenge facing Aorus is how do you create a more powerful laptop than the already impressive X7 v7? For £2,500, said machine offers a Core i7 processor, GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, dedicated macro keys and a 120Hz QHD display imbued with Nvidia G-Sync technology. Practically everything an enthusiast gamer needs.

Hoping to go one better, the all-new Aorus X9 doubles-up on GPU horsepower but does so at the expense of other key features. The column of dedicated macro keys has disappeared, the 17.3in display doesn't support G-Sync, fan noise has increased significantly, and battery life has gone from bad to worse.

There are some redeeming features - the mechanical keyboard is particularly pleasant and X9's connectivity options are excellent - but when you consider the industry's growing indifference to multiple GPUs, the X9 would make most sense housing a single GTX 1080 instead of SLI.

Bottom line: enthusiast gamers willing to tolerate the foibles of SLI may be inclined to take a gamble with the X9, for everyone else, the sleeker, lighter and better equipped X7 v7 remains the safer bet.

The Good
  
The Bad
Can deliver 120Hz QHD gaming
Has makings of a desktop replacement
Backlit mechanical keyboard
Excellent range of connectivity options
  
Too darn loud
Two-hour battery life
SLI is an expensive gamble
Display doesn't support G-Sync


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The Aorus X9 gaming laptop will be available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



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HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by EvilCycle - Thu 19 Oct 2017 10:40
I know Gigabyte are a well respected brand and everything, but their Aorus line products always come across as a try hard attempt to compete with ROG, except for me their designs look a lot cheaper than the hardware actually is. If I knew nothing at all about computers I would literally think Aurous is a Chinese knock off version of ROG, and that's not cool, especially as I know for a fact they are anything but. This is obviously all personal taste and I am sure there are people that think these things look beautiful otherwise they wouldn't sell, but I really don't.
Posted by jimeryhowits - Thu 26 Oct 2017 08:12
you have absolutely right
Posted by Star1 - Wed 06 Dec 2017 16:43
Far from a Chinese knock off. I would've say ROG is more like a plastic'y toy with go-faster red striped highlights.
Posted by Star1 - Wed 06 Dec 2017 17:11
An impressive machine, far from any knock-off. Sadly ROG's are more like desperately high priced plasticy toys (with go faster red stripe highlights) though I wish it were not true having considered a model version previously but realised it would've not been a wise buy.

Giving this X9 serious consideration having owned an X7 Pro V3 CF1 and an X7 DT V7 CF1 after that. Both had exceptional reliability, yes the fans did go loud which don't concern me as I use headphones most of the time, or have game volume louder than fans on display. Truth be known I am disappointed that they didn't fit the X9 with 1080 SLI as 1070 is a little disappointing especially for non or poorly optimized games. In such scenarios one would have to disable SLI reverting to one 1070 card and then suddenly you have the latest flagship Aorus laptop that is less powerful than the older X7 DT V7 model with a 1080 card. Aorus could've easily got away with beefing up the chassis a little to accommodate better cooling and along with it's mostly metal build quality enclosure, it would've still looked better than the plastic bricks out there already with 1080 SLI (MSI GT83VR 7RF, SAGER, Asus ROG, etc). A missed opportunity and almost a mistake perhaps.

Despite this I'm still considering getting an Aorus X9, but I need to know to what degree, or at what level the micro-stuttering and frame-times are (acceptable or not). Naturally this will vary from game to game, system to system and how good the built in SLI Bridge is, i.e. High quality, high band-width SLI Bridge or just a lower spec'd stock version.