*** The Official MSI GS65 Stealth Owners and Discussions Lounge ***

After AIDA64 stress test, several benchmarks, and 1.5 hours intense gaming on all Ultimate settings, we get the following Max Temp spikes.

Stock:
CPU = 92C
GPU = 79C

With Grizzly Conductonaut and Fujipoly pads:
CPU = 84C
GPU = 74C

 

Impressive !

 

When considering the value of a PCIe NVMe SSD, see this discussion - http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvme-vs-sata-ssds-for-gamers.802045/

 

Are those temps with or without undervolting ?

 

No undervolting either at stock, or with Grizzly Conductonaut and Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads.

 

I wish HIDevolution had the 054 version with just a 256 and 16gb memory (2 x 8gb). I'l like to upgrade later on and would love to buy from them changing the drives and memory in their customization doesnt come close to base 054 cost

 

That's pretty good, awesome to know. Do you happen to have any numbers for Gelid? My primary concern is the device throttling and would like to avoid LM if at all possible due to possible leakage. (I'm very mobile, and the laptop will likely be in a backpack vertical for long periods of time). Also in terms of Sata vs. Nvme: the config that I'm ideally going for is ~500 gb nvme for my applications to cut down on large application load times such as visual studio with a 1 tb sata for games.

 

No, we don't have any numbers with Gelid GC Extreme at this time.

Regarding your concerns about the safety of liquid metal thermal interface material, yes applying anything metal conductive to a piece of electronic equipment has its risks, but we have a proprietary means of application to prevent leakage. Also, you can rest assured that any upgrades that we perform will be covered under warranty. Regarding its long term effects, we have been offering liquid metal thermal compound for over a year with no ill effects or reports of issues from users. On the contrary, we found liquid metal thermal material to be more effective than traditional thermal interface material over the long term.

 

So here i am... i am torn between the msi gs65 and the Gigabyte aero 15.
Since i dont game that much any new games (just pubg and lol sometimes) i thought the 1060 version is enough for me.
I got some questions about the msi before making a descission.
1. is the 1060 the max-q version?
2. i read and saw a lot ppl complaining, that the build quality of the msi isnt that great and feels a Bit cheap, cause of heavy flex. Is that true?
3. is there any difference between the 1060 and 1070 Version of this laptop despite the obvious ones?

 

For the gs65
1. It’s a full 1060, not max-q
2. dont have one yet so can’t say
3. Other than the GPU and price don’t think so but there maybe a difference in the SSD type between configurations


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Can anyone comment on the build materials for the GS65? Are they aluminum on both the lid and the bottom part?

 

Is ambient air brought in or out through the bottom?

 

There is flex in the case. The whole case is aluminum. I wouldn't say that the flex is so bad that it will stay in a particular shape unless you really force it. I would treat this laptop as fragile as any other laptop unless it's a Panasonic Toughbook/Tab. It seems like the intake is through the top of the keyboard and the bottom. The exhaust is on the sides and back. I could be wrong about the bottom, but I didn't feel any airflow there with the fan set to cooler boost.

 

Just got the message from HIDevolution that my Stealth moved into production!! The days of using a laptop that gives me the very welcomed blue screen of death during work are counting down!

@Phoenix Could you tell me what I need to do to be blessed with your tweaks?

 

Regarding Aero 15 vs. GS65:

We have an Aero 15X from last year (the v7) and it is one of the best laptops I've owned. I was going to give it to an employee and so ordered a v8 for myself (the perks of being the boss, amirite?). I got the v8 from HID (my first order there) with upgraded thermal paste. I ended up sending it back and I hardly ever do that with laptops!

- On the battery it was very slow and stuttered. This will probably be fixed, either with a Windows update or a BIOS update, but it was not usable, and you don't drop $2500 on a machine that isn't usable.
- The battery ran down to 50% in one hour of moderate development usage (Docker & Visual studio). The v7 takes two to two and a half hours to run down the same amount. This will also probably be fixed.
- BSODs when using the current NVIDIA driver. Probably not the case if you use the Gigabyte-supplied driver ... from last December. I won't use a laptop that requires vendor-updated drivers; the v7 doesn't and works great. This, too, will probably also be fixed, either by Gigabyte or NVIDIA.

I exchanged it for a GS 65 -- hoping the HID folks can get their hands on one of the new 970 EVOs as well! Which brings me to the only advantage of the Aero15 over the GS65, which is that it's easy to add RAM or an SSD. I haven't seen an "upside down" motherboard like the GS65 has and while I'm competent at PC construction and my toolkit has all the little tiny pieces you need for this, I'm not crazy about the work required to "get at" the components. This isn't a dealbreaker - the HID guys more than earn their small mark-up on parts anyway so I've no problem just ordering what I want through them.

I didn't mind the styling on the Aero; it was utilitarian which is fine since I'm a professional and can't have my laptops looking like ASUS ROG bling. I really like the styling on the GS65.

Both the Aero 15 I had and the Gs65 I ordered are the 1070 Max-Q version (a previous post mentioned a "1060 Max-Q" which I don't think exists) -- there is a "full 1070" and a "1070 Max-Q." The Aero v7 sitting on my desk now has a 1060 and it performs very well; the 1070 Max-Q is maybe a 10-15% bump.

tl;dr -- the Aero 15 v8 is probably going to be a great machine and maybe in as little as a week or two. But for what I do, I couldn't get it stable, and not for lack of help from HID. But the v7 is a fantastic machine so frankly I suspect you're fine no matter what. By the time you get your hands on it, the situation will probably be better for the Aero.

 

I’m going to be ordering one of these soon, possibly today. I’m hoping the chassis flex isn’t as bad as reviewers are making it sound.

 

The tweaking session will take anywhere between 2-4 hours so make sure you have enough time on your hand.

Also, you will need a fast internet connection. I cannot work with a slow connection.

when you receive your laptop, you will be greeted by the Windows 10 Setup Wizard and you will hear Ms. Cortana speaking, when you are prompted to login to your wireless network, do not do that otherwise you will be forced to sign in with a Microsoft Account, instead, click skip on the bottom left and proceed by entering a username for your computer and so forth.

Once you're on your desktop, now you can connect to the internet. Download TeamViewer and install it from this link: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows/

then come to the forums and tag me and I'll then send you a private message so we can arrange a time to do the tweaking. All you will need is to run TeamViewer, it will give you a username and ID which you can then pass on to me so I can login to your laptop temporarily to do the tweaks.

these are the tweaks that I do:

1- Uninstallation of all the Windows Store Garbage Apps like 3D Paint, Print 3D, Alarms & Clock, Feedback Hub, Maps, Groove Music, News, Weather, etc.
2- Removing all Windows 10 Privacy Invasion stuff like Telemetry, sending your keystrokes to Microsoft, automatically installing suggested apps in the background, allowing Microsoft to conduct experiments on your laptop, disabling automatic driver updates through Windows updates, disabling Windows 10 ads, disabling Cortana, Cloud Search etc.
3- Removal of nVIDIA and Intel Telemetry
4- Adjusting a lot of options in PC Settings like disabling Windows Tablet Mode (you have a laptop not a tablet), disabling suggestions appearing in the start menu, disabling automatically connecting to Paid WiFi Hotspots, disabling Game DVR which reduced performance in games, and a lot more.
5- Replacing Cortana with a much better search tool that finds results instantly called Everything which finds any file you want as soon as you start typing even a few letters of its name and it doesn't even rely on the Windows Indexing Service to do this!
6- Restoring the classic Windows Photo Viewer
7- Restoring the Classic Windows 7 Start Menu
8- Removal of the new and useless 3D Objects Folder that appears when you open "Computer"
9- Completely disabling Windows Defender from its roots (including all scheduled tasks and startup files) for those who want to install their own AV. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is highly recommended if you want the utmost security with the least system performance impact.
10- Updating all drivers to the latest versions in case they weren't up to date.
11- Disabling the performance hit that is caused by the Meltdown and Spectre patches recently released by Microsoft (optional, only if you don't mind having this security vulnerability and would rather have your CPU's full performance back)
12- Overprovisioning your SSD anywhere between 10-20% depending on how much space you can spare to ensure optimal and consistent performance at all times.
13- Blocking the Google Chrome Software Reporter Tool (which causes a high system load when it is scanning files)
14- Updating all drivers
15- Creating a system restoration image using Macrium Reflect

 

Here are my thoughts after testing both aero 15x and gs65 037 (best buy model) for 48 hrs. Please do not kill the messenger as these are my "as objective as I can be" observations and I am not trying to make anyone feel bad regarding their purchase. I am posting this because I was in the similar situation as most of you and going back and forth between the 2 for last few weeks...

Build: Aero 15x is built like a tank in comparison to gs65. Aero 15x has a metal bottom and the gs65 bottom is plastic. If they tell me otherwise than this must have been the ****tiest alum/metal ever made because I can bend it with just looking at it. Aero 15x is as solid as any laptop I have seen. It has plastic feel due to a coating that they use and also the combination of plastics in other parts of the laptop but on top and bottom where it matters most its metal as far as I can tell. Aero +1

Screen: Initially I felt that GS5 had a better screen. It was not until I looked at them side by side that I realized GS65 screen was just better put together (very very minimal screen bleed) not an actually better screen. Aero 15x has slightly better screen despite more pronounced screen bleed thus worst manuf. process. Also Aero 15x had better brightness although I have no way to test this. Both are AUO panels with a minor model difference and I believe Aero 15x is using a slightly better panel. GS model is B156HAN08.0 and Aero is B156HAN08.2. This category belongs to Aero+1 but by a hair (Aero drops few pts for Screen Bleed and gs drops few for brightness) both of which you might not notice unless you are looking at them side by side or in a pitch dark. (I actually work in darkness a lot so it bothers me more than others)
Travelsurvivability: it's my made up word that I use to judge how will laptop survive 2-3 year travel of about 30-40 trips through the airports all over the world. Its just experience with various materials and laptops no hard data to back this up. IMHO Aero 15 takes this category by a mile with the sturdier build and hinges design that is not exposed in the corners where laptops suffer the most in coming in and out of the bag and sitting in the bag. The bottom panel of Aero 15x feels like a steel plate and I feel this will not bend unlike some of my Samsung laptops that used similar thin metals that gs65 uses. Not to mention bottom of gs65 and corner hinge which is made out of 2 glued plastic half cylinders and I feel would fall apart in 6 months. This category belongs to Aero hands down+1


Performance:
SSD: Samsung SSD (NON-nvme) in GS65 is 3-4 times slower than Aero 15x nvme drive (duh lol you all know that already) but what was a surprise to me is that I did not feel that at any ANY point. IMHO this is a tie with no clear winner except maybe on paper. GS=Aero=+0

CPU: They are both tuned differently and stock to stock gs65 will run way hotter ~5 degrees and way slower 35 fps slower than aero on OpenGL Cinebench and ~200 points slower than aero on CPU after playing around with xtu you can get them to perform fairly close but gs65 still runs hotter than Aero. No idea why I guess Aero cooling solution is better despite 3 fans in the gs65. GS=Aero=+0

RAM: gs65 (remember its a best buy model) came with dual channel Kingston ram stick 2x 8gb. So no complaints by most I would assume unless you plan on upgrading later in which case Aero 15x is the more economical solution as you don't have to throw both ram stick out. For me, I do plan on upgrading to 32bg RAM ASAP as I often need as much ram as I can take for data science purposes. In addition to this Aero has slightly faster RAM and it is easier to upgrade and maintain while GS comes with Dual Channel with BestBuy model so this one is a toss-up. I would give it to Aero but true gamers out there might prefer dual 8x2 GB of ram in there for max performance. GS=Aero=+0

GPU: This is a tie. Both are using older drivers with new ones failing with BSOD. They are performing close enough. Worth mentioning stock GS65 will perform worse until one reinstalls Nvidia Drivers from MSI website than OpenGL caught up with Aero15x. It did run 2-3 degrees warmer than Aero15x though. GS=Aero=+0
Look and Feel
Feel: Using gs65 alone and not comparing it to anything else feels good and its pretty from far but using it after using Aero 15x GS65 feels cheap and plastic like. Its hard to explain probably as look is personal but I promise even if you dislike the design language of one or the other you will not be able to deny that MSI feels inferior after using both. If you rest your hands on the palm rest by the trackpad on both Aero gives NOTHING like a marble slab while gs65 will bend and creek like its made out of thin wood panels. This is really hard to get over. I really had high hopes for gs65 because I do like the look its just materials that let gs65 down. Aero +1
Sharp edges: Silly to have the category for this I know... but it is important enough for me so that being said: Aero has sharper edges where you rest your wrist and or palm while typing so that is a plus for GS65 which did not have that issue and felt Gs+1
Heat:
Look; I have no idea how they did this but GS65 looks smaller but its nearly identical in footprint to Aero. looks belong to gs65 IMHO. It's a nice simple design and does not feel like an old dell latitude laptop like aero does. If it wasn't for thin bezels I would guess aero came from dell as an update to latitude series. GS+1

Keyboard: Coming from MacBook Pro gs65 was easier to get used to because if the similar layout but after few hrs I was able to use both so this one is a toss-up. You really do get used to both Aero's cramped style keyboard but with better travel and numpad or gs65's IMHO quirky fn placement on the right side and Brightness volume and all of those adjustments forced to the right side of the kb. With both having their own little quirks GS=Aero=+0

Price: This is self explanatory as might come in as a deal breaker for some so I am tossing this in . GS65 after tax $2120 vs Aero $2300 GS+1

TOTAL
Aero: 4
GS65: 3

 

I noticed that the MSI GS65 only has a miniDP 1.2 whereas the Aero 15x has 1.4. Does this make a big difference? I saw some stuff online, but I don't know if it will matter for any reasonable use cases.

 

@Donald@HIDevolution I am attempting to place an order, could you PM to help me?

 

Just got mine ordered. @Donald@HIDevolution made the process very easy. Definitely the best PC shopping experience I’ve had.

 

Finally got mine today. For those concerned about the build quality, this is no different than the previous models. It's by no means rugged, but it's not a piece of glass either.

Not too thrilled with my terms so far. After a single FS test, my CPU throttled at 92c and my GPU hit 84c. Both were repasted with LM. Will investigate further.

 

Hi all, I'm close to pulling the trigger on this. Can anyone comment on the screen brightness? I have seen mixed reports, one review said it was fine at about 293 nits ( https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/msi-gs65-stealth-thin), another said it was dim at about 250 nits ( https://www.techspot.com/review/1615-msi-gs65-stealth-thin/ [though maybe due to calibration?]).

Any owners insight would be greatly appreciated. I have a GS63VR IPS model currently.

Thanks also for the note on build quality, Derek712. I had wondered if the common complaint was that somehow build quality went down or if they were just not used to this form factor's flex. If its the same as other models that's fine with me. I've gone through a GS60, GS63 and now hopefully this -- flex has always seemed acceptable to me for a laptop this light/thin. Thanks!

 

I'll measure the screen details tonight. I also just came from a GS63vr and the screens looks very similar except for the refresh rate. Brightness is also similar but I'll let some form numbers to you soon

 

He said that AFTER the calibration the brightness and the contrast aren't so impressive. (and/or probably those were 2 different panels)

 

Any ideas on why your cpu is throttling? Have you tried undervolting yet or running stock?

 

Running stock. Will try undervolting later in the week.

 

Who did your Thermal Materials upgrade?

 

IA AC DC loadline has to be set to 1 or your CPU will overvolt by far north of 100mv at full load.
If you have no access to this setting, undervolting via Throttlestop or Intel XTU is the *ONLY* thing you can do.
I've posted about this problem for months and months. It goes back to BEFORE the GT73VR was even out. It was @sirgeorge who was the first person to discover there was a problem.

 

You literally quoted my acknowledgment of that issue; tho its unclear ... the author did measurements but my read is that he is talking about the MSI "calibration" and nothing done by the end user.

 

Thanks so much. If you have the GS63 (IPS or TN version) and it feels subjectively the same I think that sounds good to me! One last question if you don't mind - has the actuation of the keyboard changed at all - ie is it the same more or less w/out the keypad and presumably more spacious keys, or is there an overall different feel to the new keyboard? Thanks again!

 

The keyboard is a little different unfortunately. It was perfect before so I'm kind of bummed it's different. The keystroke feels just a hair shorter but the actuation force is still pretty similar. It's still a great keyboard and I'm getting used to it. I'm glad they changed the keycaps back to the GS60 style at least. The backlighting looks so much better this way.

My max brightness I measured was 270 nits. Average really. Contrast ratio is 750:1. Contrary to Dave2D's readings, the aRGB level is 75% - this isn't a wide gamut screen. Still a fantastic screen.

I'm going to take back my earlier comment - the build quality is a little inferior in one way. Picking up the laptop from the front edge causes a slight bend that I'm not a fan of. Specifically, when I lift it from the edge, with my thumb on top and my fingers lifting it from the bottom, I can see the laptop bend a little. It's not going to harm any internals since the battery is there. In fact, that's probably why it bends. It's still something you want to avoid. Picking it up from the sides is much better.

 

Still waiting on my laptop to be shipped to me, this is going to be my first gaming laptop so I’m pretty excited.

 

One thing that they could have done to reduce the flex is to add some reinforcing shims in several places. I am a little disappointed that they didn't do that. I still love this laptop. This performs much much better than all of my previous machines. I thought that I wanted the touchscreen with tablet mode and stylus, but I never used any of that. I still used the touchpad/mouse. And those 2 in 1 tablaptops don't really make a great "laptop." I hated my Surface Book that I had before this. It was fully loaded, but it also flipped off of my lap because it was top heavy. The pen was cool, but I only used it once. Got this MSI laptop, and this flies super fast.

 

Does anyone know if 32 GB 2666 MHz ram will perform better than 32 Gb 2400 MHz?

 

It won't perform worse. Most likely you won't be able to tell the difference though.

 

I may not. I do want to hear more anecdotes from those who have used both.

 

Wow! I'm so glad I came across this forum. Thank you to everyone in the community that has contributed in this thread and others so far.

I plan to buy the MSI GS65 soon and "join the club." Once I do, I'll be glad to participate here with discussion and answers. This forum has led to me to be aware of several re-sellers when I didn't even imagine that as an option. I've spoken with one, HIDevolution (Donald), and was immediately impressed by the responsiveness and friendliness.

I don't have much to contribute at the moment, but here is my story in case anyone else is looking into the same purchasing options that I was (primarily BestBuy vs. HIDevolution).

My initial plan was to go with the 037 from BestBuy. It has its shortcomings: non-NVME SSD and 16GB RAM (as opposed to 32GB), but $1999 can't be beat. When I was 15 years old, our family computer no longer could run new games as game tech progressed. Since then, I've wanted to buy myself a gaming computer. Finally I can. Because it is my first time buying a computer for gaming, I figured that would be more than enough to jump in and catch up on the last 16 years of PC gaming that I've been missing. I could always upgrade later.

But I called BestBuy to speak about upgrades. They gave a hard "No" to thermal re-pasting (which I do want after reading about its benefits). They said the RAM and SSD is no problem. I asked if they would move a motherboard to get to the RAM/SSD upgrade slots. They said they never touch a motherboard, but I shouldn't worry because 99% of laptops upgrade-able slots can be reached via removing the bottom or through the keyboard. I told them that I was pretty sure that the motherboard was in the way for the MSI GS65. They had no idea if it was and didn't really have an answer. That was not encouraging.

The main reason I was going for BestBuy is that I already have a Store Credit Card open there that I used to purchase a television. I was told I could get 24/months 0% APR financing for the laptop. That really helps me out because I'm a single dad with twins and I try not to blow too much money in one fell swoop.

I talked to HIDevolution and they have some financing options including a 3-year option through a lender, but that is NOT interest-free. If I did this option, I'd probably spend around $3300 instead of $2000, but have everything I need on arrival. It would also cost an extra ~400-500 in interest over a 3 year period. But that's the breaks for my financial situation. Another perk of HIDevolution - in my opinion - is the tweaks that the forum user Phoenix is offering. That really is tipping the scales for someone like me who really wouldn't know where to begin doing that on their own.

Choices to be made!

I am curious to get a few more answers in about flex, screen brightness, and definitely battery life.
I am also wondering, would this laptop be able to handle being plugged into a LG OLED 4K tv for gaming? What would that look like? Would I need to tweak the settings on TV/laptop/or game? I'm excited for my near-future.

I think other questions I've had are getting answered: the BB model (037) DOES have dual-channel RAM (8GBx2), the motherboard IS upside-down and in the way, the screen-bleeding is less of an issue than with the Aero 15, and so forth.

 

I can only answer Bourbon's question about 4k gaming with my experiences with my own desktop hardware. I have a desktop with a GeForce 1080, and I have to reduce my graphical settings in lots of games if I plug into my 4k TV. With the 1070 in this laptop, they'll need to be even further reduced if you want 60 FPS at 4k, i'd wager. I usually just wind up playing in 1080p on my TV.

I ordered a GS65 on friday and am anxiously awaiting my order. Now I just need to find a buyer for my Razer Blade Stealh and Core before dropping this kind of cash bites me in the butt.

 

The sales tax you pay on the BB model is more than the cost difference with the 256gb 1070 model with the resellers. And you get a free paste job with them. No brainier for me. Some places take PayPal credit too, which is interest free.

Upgrading the SSD and ram is not as hard as people are making it out to be. It's just very involved. It's harder than a traditional laptop, but if you've ever built your own PC, this should be fun and an educational experience. Just take your time and watch a tutorial before you start.

About gaming on your TV, as long as you have game mode on your TV, it'll be fine. You're going to struggle finding games that will run good at 4k though. Best to switch to 1080p.

 

Depends entirely on the age/style/requirements of the game. Don't quote me on this, but the benchmarks for the GTX 1070 Max-Q look mighty similar to the desktop GTX 1060 which can do most games in 1080P respectably on high/max settings. I too have a 4K TV and what I have discovered is that with my desktop (I have a GTX 1070 Founders Edition) I can run a lot of AAA games that are 5+ years old at native 4K and get 40-60 FPS easily (I do this with, say, Skyrim with a lot of visual mods enabled).

For newer AAA games, or ones that are questionably optimized (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed series, Black Flag still runs like a crippled dog) I do one/more of several things:

A) Just deal with getting 30 FPS and enjoying the console-like experience (heh heh heh)

B) Turning off features I care less about like Anti-Aliasing or the Witcher 3's ridiculously expensive Hairworks

C) Setting the resolution to 1080P and just running games in fullscreen, which isn't so bad really.

D) In newer games that have this feature, like AC Origins or Destiny 2 I just run the resolution at 4K but manually changing the resolution scaling to 50-75%; this has the effect of keeping the UI and basic rendering at 4K but just upscaling lower-res textures. I'm no expert so feel free to correct me, but this seems to have the effect of running the game at 1080P/1440P in terms of performance cost but it will look a whole lot nicer.

That being said, I generally play a lot of lower-spec games and I can run things like the new Battletech tactical rpg in native 4K and not even break a sweat.

 

Can you send me a PM regarding this service? I’d like to know how much your charge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Does anyone here know what thickness thermal pads I need to replace the stock ones ? 1mm ?

 

Not sure which would be best but I used .5mm on my GT73VR and they worked fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Just buy .5mm and stack them if you have to.

 

So I'm about to pull the trigger on an order for this machine (in my cart) but I have one concern left. I see a lot of talk about flex and some near the trackpad. Is it true that it creaks and bends when you set you palms on it to type? And is it true that it bends significantly when picking it up? This just boggles my mind why this would be the case...

 

Read....
MSI GS65 8RF Stealth Thin (i7-8750H - GTX 1070 Max-Q) laptop

 

^
Good review. All tradeoffs that are worthwhile for a lighter weight machine. I love how the text of the review reads like a bad score and then they drop an 86% (versus the Aero 15X 88%) - really shows how close things are.

The flexing is overblown if it is anything like the GS43VR. Heck, I have a Razer Blade v5 now (no flex at all - aluminum unibody) and it's not like I like it better than the GS43VR due to lack of flex. Sure it would be nice to have no flex or creaks, but MSI made some tradeoffs for weight.

 

Thanks. Actually first review I've seen that didn't just nab at the top of the panel flex or ignore the build completely

 

Mine got delivered today - but I have two nights left in my business trip. I told my wife to set it up and install all of my games. Heh.