MSI GT75 Titan, the M18x of my dreams!

I cast my vote, you can see my comment here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gt75-or-alienware-17-r5-fan-noise-comparison.820426/

This is the M18x of my fantasies (actually, the M18x of my fantasies is a GTX 1180 equipped 21" 21:9 2560x1080 120 Hz G-Sync + 3D Vision capable MSI GT75 Titan chassis variant that doesn't exist).

Seriously though, it's so nice:



What the hell happened to Alienware? Membrane keyboard and vastly inferior cooling?

 

Now if it only had a MUX switch that switches between iGPU only and dGPU only, HDMI IN, fully anodized aluminum chassis, thinner bezels (like M18x) , then maybe I'll consider it in the same category as an M18x.

The upcoming WT75 will be interesting though. Desktop CPU (i7-8700)

 

The 1080 is kind of wasted on it with the 7700hq isnt it?

 

Not really, the M18x is so much inferior that it will never be in the same category. The titan blows the alienware into bits and pieces. Far superior keyboard, speakers, monitor, cooling, software and hardware, it wins in almost all categories hands down.The GT 75 has TB3, ESS Sabre Audio DAC's, proper fan control software, steelseries software for gaming ( you have no idea how useful this is for a dota 2 player), M2. raid NVME drives, superior audio processing software etc.

The M18x is outdated and even for it's time extremely flawed, *cough* *cough* killing slave gpu *caugh* *caugh*.

Also the GT 75 does have a muxswitch, idk where you have the idea from that it doesn't.

HDMI IN is in my oppinion extremely useless, I've had it on my AW M17x R4 and never used it, because, why would I? I have monitors that are far superior to the one on the AW. Nobody who has good monitors would consider using the HDMI IN on that notebook. I do like the AW chasis better as well, but then again, I want to use a notebook, not to stare at its chasis or feel its chasis.


Also the WT75 is already on the market for quite some time. You need to either direcly order from MSI or you can purchase it from HIDEvolution.

@ TheReciever
Depends greatly on resolution and game, I wouldn't say wasted, but I would agree that its a weird configuration.

 

1. GT75 gets maybe 2 hours of battery? Cannot run iGPU due to Gsync, goodbye battery life. M18x can pull 5-6 when on hd 3000/hd 4000

2. M18x never had a problem with killing any GPUs, primary or secondary.....only gpus that had a habit of dying were 6970M/6990M, 580M, early 7970M, and 675M. 680ms work fine, 780ms work fine, 980M work fine in both primary and secondary....

3. No deficient in cooling of any kind, the heatsink/fan setup in the M18x is very efficient. Fans are controllable w/hwinfo w/ custom profiles.

4. While it has gained TB port, it hasn't gained much else...infact it has lost VGA, optical drive, HDMI IN, esata, expresscard. In my M18x I have a tv tuner/recording card that sits flush in my expresscard slot, it's very nice to have.

5. No hotswappable battery, which is a big turn off for me in notebooks.

Obviously in 6-7 years I would hope mobile computing has improved, and it has in some areas (better keyboards, better audio, better screens). Unfortunately, it's only on some fronts, not all. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. No reason why we can't have behemoth laptops getting stellar battery life and have an abundance of port selection. Clearly, the GT75 will mop the floor with the M18x. However, it's not significant enough for me at least to switch to it. I think I have another 3 years of service life in the M18x at a minimum. Is the GT75 a nice laptop? It certainly is! However, a M18x replacement, it is not.

 

You can choose between the 7770hq and the hexacore 8750h, which is basically a locked 8700k just as the 7700hq is a locked 7700k.

I think a 7700hq pairs well with a GTX 1080.

 

The GT75 has double the heatsink on the GPU, the 180W 1080 runs around 65C with the default fan profile at 42 dba. To get my 120W 980M to run at 75C I need to run the fans at 100% RPM and 60 dba, and that's with a 1.00v vbios, not 1.10, and IC Diamond on the core, and the unit elevated.

Not sure about the killing GPU's comment. But if we are to make a direct comparison between the GT75 and the M18xR2, which I'm not hinting at with this thread, the GT75 blows the M18xR2 so out of the water it's not even funny. Mechanical keyboard. 120 Hz G-Sync display and a better looking display at that. 65C with sane acoustics. NEVER EVEN NEEDING TO OPEN THE STUPID THING TO REPASTE EVERY 6 MONTHS. And from what I gather, IIRC, battery life is actually around 4 hours.

 

My 100ishw ran at 56c max fan 11.4CFM, noise never bothered me. I use headphones.

 

I mean, here's just two reasons why the GT75 blows the M18x completely away:

1. Adequate heat-sinks on the GPU means you will, in all likelihood never have to even take the thing apart to change or upgrade the TIM.

2. No more fumbling with Hwinfo64 to control your fan speed, if you even need to do that, the GT75 has switches right on the chassis that allow for controlling the fan speed, if you so desire. Hwinfo64 invariably become unresponsive, sometimes necessitating rebooting.

Then when you add the 120 Hz 3ms response time G-Sync display, the mechanical keyboard, the insane aesthetics that follow function, I mean look at this thing, you can see the copper heatpipes through the grill, this thing screams performance and it delivers.

I'm just wondering why MSI has basically taken the mantle from Alienware. The 17 R5 is a joke compared to this. Membrane keyboard. CPU hits 90C. GPU hit's 80C.

 

I'll have to agree with everything @Raidriar said. The M18x has no successor. The GT75 is a awesome laptop, don't get my wrong, but there's a reason @Raidriar @Rengsey R. H. Jr. and I still have these. Keep in mind I even sold off my P870DM3 with i7 7700K and SLI 1080s but still have this laptop.

Oh and HDMI IN is so useful. I use it at my school apartment. I don't have an extra monitor here, I use it to connect my switch. I also can take it with me anywhere and I have a usable monitor anywhere. To me it's very useful.

I'm curious if you can show me though that it still has a MUX switch. Because notebookcheck review says only dGPU is available.

 

I agree. and I just got another M18X-R2 and a M17X-R4 this week. I don't think any laptop that was made like 5 years ago that are still alive and kicking like these two models. I think I had at least 10+ M18X-R2 since it was released lol.

 

Damn you have me beat. This is my sixth one LOL

Let me know how the M17xR4 is. I always wanted one. I've owned M17xR3 for like a week and AW 17 R1 but not that one. I think it's the perfect size, but too bad it isn't anodized aluminum like the M18x.

Yo @Raidriar can you link me which TV tuner you have that actually sits flush??

 

made by avermedia, sold by dell (DPN: wt008)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Dell-I...dell+WT008&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

 

1.) It has muxswitch, it can run same battery time as the AW.
2.) Always had, many people keep killing their slave GPU's, for some reason unknown to me, it seems to have bad VRM's that cause a spike in the startup which kills cards. .
3.) Hwinfo loses control, I tested this myself on my R4 and a friend had this issue as well on his R1, it's suboptimal at best.
4.) Where I live TVcard is useless since we digitized everything, also streaming online is far superior to any TV card. Sitting on the past is bad.
5.) You can screw open the backplate and then swap it out. Quite easy to do really.Still, the solution on AW and older notebooks is better because you don't have to unscrew a couple of screws.

All things you listed are extremely outdated things, maybe it's important for people who live in the past. Expresscard is absolutely dead, because we got TB, TV tuner is dead because we got streaming services and good internet, VGA is dead because we got DP/TB, esata is dead because we got USB3/TB. optical drive is dead because we got USB. (which we can still use USB to stick in an optimal drive).

If you like your old Alienware M18x, then love it, I too like older notebooks, I don't see any need to upgrade my older notebooks either, however at least try to be objective about it. If you say you don't want to replace your notebook because you're absolutely satisfied, then that's fine, I'm happy for you, welcome to my world, but don't be biased and say something is better that clearly is inferior. You're trying so hard to defend something you simply can't, it's like saying your old ass car is better than a new one because your old car can play on its old radio cassettes. Most people have moved on, stuff you listed up are absolutely irrelevant and have been replaced by far superior technology.

It goes to show, that people who have a certain love, cannot see objectively and will be so biased towards their own stuff and they simply replace reality for their own. This is also the reason why I dislike when users write their own reviews because it's so biased that it's non factual and simply useless in most cases. Just because I got a Clevo P375SM-A for instance which I really like, doesn't mean I will completely ignore it's flaws and say its superior to something it's not. I have listed even more reasons why your Alienware is inferior to the GT75 during this post, everyone who is objective about it and not biased, will agree with me.

Obviosuly the GT 75 is newer, better, superior, but that doesn't mean that your Alienware is crap, it's simply a newer and superior product that most people would call M18x replacement. If I had the choice between a GT 75 and a M18x, I would clearly go along with the MSI, most people would, but someone who for some reason didn't move on in technology and for some reason is still stuck in the age of expresscards, TV Tuner etc. might prefer the old crappy technology but objectively speaking, the MSI is a true desktop replacement and kicks M18x ass in almost every way. It's a fact.

@ssj92
Source

See about the HDMI thing, I would never want to play nintendo switch on a monitor that small, either on my handheld or on a bigger TV screen, but I have that possibility because I live in a country where TV's are all over the place, even in rooms where you study. Most people have a TV as well, again making the HDMI thing absolutely dumb for most people. I mean I see your point, if you need outdated technology or for some reason don't have money for a proper TV but an alienware notebook and want to stare at a small monitor when watching movies or film, then it's an argument, however thats like the cassete argument, it really only works if you look at yourself and not the majority.

This is sadly the blindness of some people who are biased towards their own stuff. They make arguments that nobody would make and simply refuse to look at it objectively. This is sadly also happening for apple and clevo users, they are so focused on their own machines that they will go as far as tell people that their system is superior while being way inferior.

Yeah hwinfo64 is shotty at best.

MSI was superior the moment they released the GT72 series (apart from the GT72Vr, that one was meh), that was the first notebook from MSI, which had it all. The GT72 replaced my alienware, it was so much better in every way that I sold my R4 for it. Some people are just late to the party tho. The GT/WT is so far the best notebook on the market, when it comes to all around package, some might not like the design, some might not like the keyboard, but in terms of cooling, IO, performance, Sound etc. it beats the competition.

Tho I am interested to see if some company will dethrone the MSI. So far It seems that Asus is getting really close, and have seen quite some interesting stuff from gigabyte and Acer and obviously some stuff from john @ obsidian, if he keeps up his work, clevo notebooks will finally be recommendable and might dethrone MSI.

 

1. Is correct. Direct quote from notebookcheck: "Note: The processor's graphics chip (Intel HD Graphics 630) remains inactive due to G-Sync. However, it is possible to save energy and reduce the other emissions in idle mode by switching the graphics accelerator via the GPU button. This requires rebooting the system (Nvidia's GPU was always active for our tests)."
2. I've never heard of otherwise stout GPUs failing extraordinarily in the M18x when compared to other dual GPU laptops. All the trouble has always stemmed from either faulty cards or poorly cooled/installed cards.
3. Not the situation for me since I don't **** around with cards that don't give native fan control, but ok. When I've had to ocassionally set max speed, it has never failed me.
4. TV card is far from useless......it does ATSC/QAM like every other telivision so I'm not sure if you're talking about the DTV transition from 2008-2009, but it works fine. Streaming online is not far superior to antenna....online stuff has to be compressed and requires active internet. Antenna signals are uncompressed aka better quality and no internet required! I enjoy it quite a bit. I don't have cable, just antennas on televisions where I need them, supplemented by internet.
5. That's more work than I care to do. When I'm on the move I don't want to finagle with a screwdriver to swap a battery. Latch and go.

I never claimed the M18x is better, stronger, whatever compared to the GT75. All I said is the GT75 is not a replacement for the M18x. It is a great laptop in it's own right, but not a M18x replacement, the same way the M18x could never replace the M17x R2 (no RGBLED > 100% adobe screen available on the m18x, no wuxga resolution available either)

 

1.)
2.) Yeah this happens to the cheap cards faster than the more expensive cards, but especially on the slave slot it loves to blow them to death. Even maxwell cards. I have a user who blew 3 cards on his slave in less than a month for instance (cheap cards tho). Expensive cards tend to be able to witshstand it for a longer time, but eventually will die. Everytime an AW18 user posts his video card is dead, I always ask if it's the slave card, and everytime it's just the slave card.
3.) Well me and 2 other guys have quite the issues with HWinfo64 losing control, and tons of others, so ya make of that what you will, even the dev said that the fan control is far from optimal in one of his blogs.
4.) In my country that thing is dead, we use streaming service and fiber internet to stream 4k television. Considerng you cannot stream more than FHD, I would consider it worse quality. 4k is standard for a TV in my country. also TV Tuner cards can be purchased as a USB dongle and will work as fine as your built in, in case someone actually should need it for one or another reason.

Again, if you're happy with your AW and u use some of the features of it and don't need more performance etc. go for it, I'm happy for you. It's a great notebook especially since i'ts outdated is a great price/performance notebook, but for people who are looking for a DTR notebook the GT75 certainly will easily replace the M18x.

 

Quick question: how can this be the "M18x of your dreams" without an 18" display!!???

So really it is the "M17 of your dreams"... just sayin'

Homer

 

LOL nice quip

Also, we dont know if the system is capable of running 500w either like that of the M18xR2. I hope to have one at some point just to have.

I dont have the same feeling for this laptop.

 

Unfortunately no-one makes anything bigger than 17.3" nowadays, except Acer with their $9k 21" 21:9 curved display unit. I mean a 1" difference is noticeable between 17.3 and 18.4" but in the end, it isn't a substantial difference and I would definitely opt for 120 Hz G-Sync over 60 Hz V-Sync.

 

I would jump on that Predator X 21 over the GT75. Its a monster in its own category.

 

Oh common, I mean if it wasn't for that price daaaayuuummm. The curved panel alone is all the reason you need to jump at it.

 

I’m making it one of my goal to get one when the price do come down or If i can find one at a stellar deal.

 

Thanks! I might get this. Do you have a pic of how it looks like on your M18x?

Interesting, I must have missed this. Does the WT75 (based on GT72?) also have a MUX switch? (If you know by any chance). I wish Clevo used a MUX switch then maybe I would have kept the P870DM3.

The HDMI IN thing for me is, either I use the switch or my laptop screen (18.4"). I don't feel like buying another TV because I always end up going for the highest end. I don't like the low end ones so it would cost a lot, not to mention I go home every weekend to my big tv + 5.1 surround set-up so to me it's a waste. Personal preferences of course.

I'll admit the MSI GT72+ models are great, but like @Raidriar said it's not a direct replacement for us veteran M18x owners. It is definitely more powerful, newer, etc. and I won't argue that.

If anything my next notebook might be a GT75 successor in the future but until then the M18x is still my favorite all around laptop. I've only played with a Eurocom Tornando F5 in real life so don't have much experience with MSI yet.

 

Sadly I don't 100% know, The button for the switching is there tho, I'm not sure if its a dummy button or if it works.

 

Don't forget the other MSI Titan... seems like it is still on the main line.

Homer

 

Soldered and locked.

 

8th gen models don't have MUX switch anymore:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.806253/page-178#post-10771372

 

I owned both units, aw m18x was behemoth back at that time and one of the best gaming laptops of 2012ish (i think). I own a gt75 now, and the main thing that distinguishes this rig on the others is the cooling design, the cooler boost just, cool the laptop significantly, fans go wild but noise doesnt bother me, what bothers me really are the temps i have during gaming for 2-3 hours. Both units are distinctive in a good way for their prime years.

 

there is no replacement for m18x. even the Alienware 18 was not a replacement as they implemented cost cutting (removing physical media buttons).

 

don't forget the 330w limitation, secure flash bios

@Mr. Fox @Papusan

 

This. I remember the physical media buttons on the top right, plus the headlights-like front LED, good cooling and top loaded design at that time imo. M18x was my first gaming laptop, until the ants (for reasons idk) went inside the laptop and butchered my motherboard.