~GX660(R) Owner's Lounge~

Lets clean this forum up just a bit. I think Ryzeki's Review thread has branched out to something ridiculous! Thanks to him though for kicking off the discussions on that notebook. That being said, for people who have questions, comments, modifications, problems, drivers, and all things regarding the MSI GX660(R) 15.6" Notebook: Post it here!

Remember the GX660 and GX660R are the ATI-based versions that essentially have the same chassis, BIOS, and general construction. Make sure if you're having issues you post which system you have (or want), but for the most part, all owners of this system can answer questions and problems due to the similarity of the units!

Those with GT660 questions, also feel free to chime in. But remember that your system is slightly bigger with an nVidia 285 card, so some of your problems will be specific to your system.

Thanks everyone!

 

Would anyone be courteous enough to do some game benchmarks? JC2, AC2, Dirt2, BC2, RE5, and FC2?

I would appreciate it, trying to determine how big an of impact the i7 makes.

Thanks

 

Has anyone installed the newest bios, is everything ok?
What is the name of the webcam software included on the laptop when its first bought?
What files are on the 'recovery' partition when its first bought, and does anyone have an image of that partition?
There are my questions.. thanks!

 

The Core i5 version has just shown up on Overlockers.co.uk website for pre-order, this looks like the one for me. The only power use this machine will get from me is gaming and I'm not sure if many of the games I'll be playing (Dirt2, Grid, FIFA11, PES 2011) would take advantage of quad core. In the UK at least the 660R is 1700 GBP and this 660 is only 950 GBP which is a big saving.

Two questions I do have is how easy is it to change the RAM, HD, Wireless, Bluetooth, optical drive etc? I haven't seen any pics of the machine with the bottom panels removed yet. Can you turn off the orange leds?

 

YouTube - MSI GX660R-060 Video Review PART 2 by XoticPC
Gives a good shot of the Laptop without the bottom panel.

The first 2 slots for RAM are very easy, the 3rd requires extra work. HD swaps are very easy. Maybe others will comment on the rest.

Yes you can easily turn off the LED's and they will stay off until you turn them on again, so you don't have to worry about them lighting up at startup or anything.

 

i can't adjust my screen brightness anymore

all of the eco modes show the same brightness, and my Fn up arrow/down arrow does nothing to the brightness anymore

 

Can you manually adjust it on the Display/Monitor area of the Control Panel?

 

I would love to have as many reviews from members as possible.

So anyone with a GX660r it would be amazing if you could do a write up, when you're buying a new laptop, there is never enough reviews. I have literally read every review there is (mainly of the GT660 because there are hardly any GX660 reviews). And the main problems seem to be screen res (on the GT, so thats not a problem) and keyboard flex.

Come on guys reviews please with pictures would also be amazing.

 

For those in the UK, there is also the Mesh Computers branded variant called the 'Ultima 15G'. It is basically the i5 version but with 8Gb of RAM and the Blu-ray drive for £1099. Probably worth a look and similar value for money. I've asked whether/when the the GT663 version is coming with i5, the nvidia 460M and (rumoured) Optimus - this would be awesome if there isn't too much of a premium over the ATI version.

 

CPU and GPU heatsinks are ridiculously easy to get to. Wifi card requires removing the control bar. Third RAM stick requires removing the keyboard.

 

Great idea starting this thread Inaction, its about time! I was trying to up my voltage today using rbe, and i noticed the only selectable voltage is 1.05v, what a shame =(. But, on a more serious note, has anyone noticed occasional high pitched noises coming from the fan? It seems to happen to me randomly when in windows doing anything. Just wondering.....

Thanks.

 

My system should show up tomorrow -according to the shipping site-

So, pre-mature that I started the thread, but hey, I'm optimistic.

Thinking good thoughts.

Hoping that MSI's great "quality control" with this product didn't affect me. From things I've read about reviews from users is a very disappointing percentage of them that have something wrong that in no way should be wrong. A bad HDD, a RAM module failing. Aesthetic accidents like the touchpad rockers out of place, etc.

Once I get it, I'll be able to enjoy it. Of course, once I work out the bugs, and put in my own hybrid HDDs, then I'll start putting it through it's paces, work on cooling mods/some light OC work.

Hell, I haven't even gotten to play SC2 or Civ V yet. No system can run it that I currently own

But yes, I did figure it was about time to start this thread. -Fingers Crossed- that I'll be able to help folks out for awhile.

 

hei forge could you have some photo for the third ram and the wifi card removal part?

 

I'll try to bum a camera off a friend tomorrow. Cross your fingers, haha.

 

hehe ty very much

 

Hey Guys ,

Well here’s my experience with this machine. First off I had an Toshiba Qosmio X300 before 9800GTX well you probably know it. I first met the MSI in June (invitation to MSI) and while impressed by the sound, I was not much interested in it since everything I threw at my Toshiba he could handle and with Harman kardon not being bad at all I did not see the ‘added value’ … few weeks back I finally pushed my dear Toshiba over the edge …. We made a pact one season of Formula-1 and after he could dodo (French: Sleep (what we say to children, because that’s how he felt) after almost 2 years of punishment … So of course I needed a laptop fast looked online and saw .. not much (mind coming from a 9800GTX, not believing in SLI/crossfire yet) so a lot of the systems I saw were either not faster, or terribly expensive. Suddenly my eye saw the MSI with a price tag of 1400 euro well within the budget and a nice improvement both in CPU as GPU and raid!!! So ordered it received it a day later and before he could say: Bienvenue … he had already 6 games installed …. Keep in mind that I actually did NOT want to upgrade, my old lappy perfomed great ran all the games I bought so I did not see the need …

The review part:

Coming from 17 & 18’’ laptop’s this one was considerably smaller, lighter etc. And actually I did not mind that bit a lot.

Sound: The sound is excellent- tweaking a bit with the settings given by realtek I can make the ground tremble and the neighbors wake up when I want. Harman kardon was always a pleasure to show off 4 speakers and a woofer .. Amazing ….. but in fact this one does a better job with only 2 speakers and a woofer the sound is loud crisp and really nice to hear, although it will not beat a good headset (using a shure here)

Keyboard: beside the point that it has no back lightning (with I never had before anyway) I can say it types nice, good feedback etc; actually I have the feeling I’m able to type faster on this lappy. Though some keys are a bit smaller than the full size witch gave me a few mis types in the beginning. It’s good it’s nice..

Build quality: While it’s a gaming laptop it does not feel like it… it could have been just aswell a underperformer or a mid-range (opinion) this has both the good side as: it does not look overly gaming it’s still quite portable battery life is excellent in comparing to some other gaming machines. It feels pretty sturdy – I would not throw it like my Lenovo X200t as I’m sure it would break and leave marks etc. but it does feel like it could handle a bit of punishment..

AC; It’s a normal size block; though I’m a bit afraid of the connection to the laptop … it at least feels to me a bit unnatural connecting it…. And it does ‘feel’ to me like if say a cat .. or dog would pull a lot it would break …

Battery: As I mentioned before battery life is great, gaming I’m getting one and half to 2 hours ( 2-3 time’s the qosmio’s) and if I just surf and write a bit I’m getting 3 hours… did not try the power saving function’s as I believe we all should do our part to help the polar bears get a bit nicer temperature in their pool (kidding ofc.)

Mouse: it’s ok … I always connect a external mouse but when for some reason I do need to use the internal it’s adequate but certainly not great … I remember that I was able to use my Dell 9400 mouse to play games with … (shooters) I won’t try that with this one … but for office things it’s fine.

Screen: Bright light!!!! Was my first sentence it certainly is bright .. colors are good, everything is good when sitting infront of it . when someone is sitting next to me I notice I have to turn it a good couple of degrees for them to see it nicely; but hey it’s a personal anyway – in the train I’m loving it no need for the stupid privacy filter.

Crapware: I don’t know if it’s me but when I opened the task manager and saw the LED manager using a good 80-100mb … I was hmmmm and out you go ….. if Symantec was still using that kind of resources we call it a resource hog . For me that’s too much an MB of 10-20 I would have been fine with …. Though I have quite a lot of memory (6) I still did not like it… Same went for some other software – I actually did not appreciate the Norton backup neither, starting up using my gaming resources – so till a format I just disabled them to start up – further than that and the fugly wallpaper MSI refrained from putting to much on it … thanks!

Cooling: Wow … I love the button pushing it .. and pushing it …all day long – yep I’m in love with the cooling button , it makes so much noise that you just ‘know’ it’s working . Though the laptop gets HOT at times if I don’t push it, really hot probably something todo with the size graphic card is full on one of my paws, that ‘s why I bought a cooler pad – though not very comfortable on your lap .

Temperatures with the pad and the cooling button are great, alone with the Cooler on it never gets into the reds (90 degrees) while playing games

Overclock button: Have I done a lot of trouble to find out what it exactly does …. I mean I know what it does overclock but how much what etc… I can’t seem to find the info or maybe even be able to change it – I would love to be able to put my own OC into that config file and then with one press …. Who’s your daddy now!!! Ran a few benchmarks with it on and off and it seems to help with one and get worse with the other … will try to see if I can post a few of those.

Raid: Oh hell it’s fast! For now at least it put’s the need for me to buy an SSD …

Processor: Me not doing enough research gave me a bit of a disappointment when I found out it’s actually using dual channel and not triple … I assumed with 3 rips of memory it would use all 3 but further then that great thing … Though intel speedstep gave me a few errors in the log so turned that off ( Just doing my part for the polar bears) and now everything is good ..


OK I’m not totally sure if you can follow any of what I wrote above, I never review I’m not a PC expert and on top of that I normally don’t write neither

Questions requests let me know

Edit: Added 2 reports one without Turbo, Two with turbo on..

 

Thank you Duke, that was most informative.

btw, is it normal for my speakers to crack when play music (especially piano) with high volume?

EDIT: it might be something under my keyboard vibrating because if I press down hard, it stops. How can I fix this annoying problem?

 

I had the same around 3/4 of max it started cracking Reduction was when I changed the audio format to 24bit 192000 Hz (although your ears won't hear it) it seemed to reduce it.

Playing with the DTS helped a bit too, turning it on and on 'music' setting.

I'll try the pressing down tomorrow (Sleeping people here now) with the things turned off.

 

hi atreides, what settings did u find that made the sound sound the best?

Also, regarding the high pitched noises that i thougt were coming from the fan, i opened the laptop while it was running and it seemed the noises were coming from a particular wire next to the processor, and bellow it, next to that metal circular thing. its a black wire that looks like it powers my ssd in the primary slot (not the one closer to the gpu)..... it seems to increase when i click on something like my browser, and its pretty loud, definetly not normal as it started yesterday. Any know a fix for this?

 

Yay, finally an owner's lounge!

Man I now feel bad for never completing my review. I honestly don't have time... and I really want to take pics. I need to get a hold of a camera first then ill see when I can finish it up.

Anyways, I also have a bit of crackling sound distortion when using high volume but it depends on the quality of what I am playing I think.

 

Thought I Might post these for your viewing pleasures

ImageShack® - superoo3p's Profile Page

 

Wasn't home to sign for the delivery today Oh well I'll pick it up tomorrow.

That said - to those having vibration sounds when listening to music: Not to you know, make it sound "simple" but because this notebook has such nice speakers and a built-in subwoofer - could it simply be the vibrations that naturally happen with loud sounds?

i.e. when you increase volume to a car system, at loud enough levels you can hear the windows and mirrors vibrate.

Could it be as simple as you know, the chassis or internal metal parts that vibrate with enough power to the speakers?

If it's audio distortion - that's disappointing. But hopefully a new codec or driver can fix that issue.

 

lol.

Go take a look at my problem with the audio in Dirt2.

Speakers/subwoofer has too much bass/vibration, making the game have up to 5 second freezes while the HDD usage is maxed.

But if there's a audible sound coming from the vibrations then it could be loose screw or loose fitting somewhere.

 

Hi superoo3p,

Currently I have :
Effects: OFF - Don't really like them.
DTS surround sound sensation: On , Disabled voice clarification
Enable bass enhancement to 5 (loving a bit of punch)
Enable MIX LFE
DTS boost: On

Audio format: 24 bit 1920000 hz

And in windows config only: immediate mode on and of course the rest managed by realtek.

I play mostly music from Deezer.com (256kbs) so not the best quality, convenience over quality

Oh btw I was a bit surprised by the fact that in most games I can't select audio Hardware,
For example F1 2010 gives the option Rapture3D, software and if your sound card can handle it Hardware ...
Witch of course hardware would be the better choice, but not luck

 

I know something is vibrating under the keyboard because if I press the spacebar while playing loud music, the buzzing stops. How can you remove the keyboard properly?

 

ok i removed the keyboard and discovered two flaps covering the ram slot that kept hitting the side. This was causing the problem!

 

Are you sure it has a dedicated sound card?

 

Indeed it has not..
Still *some* of the intergrate kind can do it...

Stuck with Rapture and their annoying ' lag'

 

Hey guys! Glad to see there's an owner's lounge now .

I've had my GX660R for a few weeks now and am really loving it. I've had a minor issue with the LED Manager not working properly, but I was told a clean installation of Windows 7 would do the trick.

Which is the main reason for my post. I'm about to reinstall Windows 7 for the first time on this machine. I have the info on how to burn a disc and am mostly comfortable with the steps for the installation itself, but I have a couple questions.

I noticed there is a BIOS Update. Should I update before I install Windows or after? Does it matter? Also, I want to make sure I keep the Raid 0 configuration but I'm going to leave it unpartitioned when I reinstall so both drives show up as one drive. Any advice or tips on that? Also, are there any tips regarding BIOS settings? I'm only mildly familiar with toying around in the BIOS. Also, when deleting partitions, should I bother keeping the recovery partition that was pre-installed?

Thanks

 

The order you install windows or Bios doesn't matter at all. BIOS is firmware, Windows is software, they will not interfere with each other at all.

As for the RAID, I'm not sure with it as I don't have much expertise in that area, but you should definitely keep the recovery partition just in case. Plus, with the abundance of HDD space you have it won't take much space at all anyways.

 

I keep getting a 64 bit crash error when trying to update my bios

 

If updating the Bios is anything like updating the vBIOS you should do it outside of the operating system so your chances to brick your unit is less.

 

Can someone please answer, cause I might RMA if there is no solution. Can you please put your ear on the left of the touchpad (where the ati sticker is), and next to the vent on that side and tell me if you here a high pitched buzzing/ clicking noise. It happens only after windows has booted when the computer is idle I think.

Thanks,
Super

 

Has anyone tried undervolting the HD5870M in battery and 2D mode?

 

Btw thanks for the sound guide man, it helped =)

 

I can hear a bit of noise and clicking, but it is not really that audible.

 

Uhm. Isn't that where an HDD is located? You sure it's not just an active Hard Disk sound?

 

i'm having the clicking noises on my GX660 too. Anybody know if the new bios out there does anything to fix this issue?

My led button doesn't work either lol, but it's not a big deal since i've always thought these led's were cheesy.

 

Here are some pictures. Yes, I'll finally get on top of that optimization/cooling guide. But, for now...

I, inexplicably, forgot to take a picture of the drilled-out backpanel. I'll take a shot tomorrow.


The innards (plus copper)
As you can see, you can remove the fan for cleaning without touching the heatsinks

 

........AAAANNNNND it's RMA time.


-sigh-


Got bit by the MSI hand of quality control fate. One of the HDDs in the RAID failed on boot-up today.

Well I guess I can't really blame MSI for that one. HDDs are out of their control.

Man. Me and Hard Drives. 3 years ago I had my Seagate die in my ASUS on it's fourth day. And now again on day 2. I'm almost AFRAID to buy any more HDDs/SSDs (c'mon Intel in netbook - DO NOT LET ME DOWN)

Frustrating. Just as I was feeling my way around the notebook and enjoying myself!

 

I suppose you're luckier you got the problem now than later when you had all your work on there, cos that could of been nasty (if you had no backups).

That's why I don't like using raid because if one HDD fails, all data is ed

It's not MSI's problem to be fair it's the producers of your HDD, and it's almost luck of the draw. I have never so far had a HDD fail. But my MSI is coming in a few days, so I never know (luckily I got a SSD and a HDD thoough).

Anyone ever heard of a SSD failing?

 

SSDs fail just like anything else can fail. It's the same failure rate as an HDD, for the most part.

 

Yep, SSDs can and do fail. They may be "more reliable" but by no means are they immune to hardware failure

 

Like I said, this has happened to me before. I'm just sad that I didn't really get around to testing out everything before it died.

That said, I did notice a few things. Nothing too technical, but here's what I found.

1) The "rattling" noise when you crank up the audio is - at least with my notebook - simply the chassis vibrating against itself. Particularly the top piece of plastic/chassis/whatever it is between the two Dynaudio speakers that contain the f1-f12 keys. It's not the speakers themselves that cause the vibrating, but instead the sound quality that reverberates through the chassis.

2) For all the reviews about the "soft" keyboard? It wasn't bad. To be fair, my fingers just need to adjust to this "chicklet" thing before I get up to full touch-typing speed, but I didn't notice flex too much unless I was "pounding away" at a strength that I would never use for typing purposes.

3) I really liked the ergonomics. I'm very picky about wrist/armrests before the keyboard. I've been on a 13" system the past 3 years, and my main concern was going to be "reaching" the keyboard without awkwardly having to place half my forearm on the designated area. It wasn't bad. My only concern is that with prolonged use that area is going to get dirty/show dirt (and in turn transfer to the screen/webcam)

4) Okay, what they say about the screen is true. Straight on at FHD - Great colors and sharp looking. Some wicked washout at less than optimal viewing angles.

5) Didn't even get a chance to game! Booo! But que sera. So I have no opinions on the BSOD (except for a hard drive one, which sadly, I'm very familiar with)

Anyway, that's my opinion with the like, three total hours I had with the system before the HDD failure (again, no blame to MSI, BIOS booted properly, and I didn't seem to have some of the 'accidents' in QC as others). I really liked it. Hoping they can just replace the HDDs but give me back the chassis. I checked it out and had nothing loose or misplaced, so I felt like i had won the QC lottery!

 

I fixed the rattling sound by removing the keyboard and taping the 2 plastic flaps down.

 

Picture of my mutilated bottom pannel.

 

Are my questions that stupid that noone will answer them? Sheesh!

 

1)Nope, I doubt anyone installed newest BIOS. I don't even know what they do and since my current machine works as is, I don't think I will change them any time soon.

2)Webcam Companion.

3)No idea what's on the recovery partition nor I have an image of it. The machine comes with full discs I think so they don't matter much.

Yep mate! Joking. Most probably people just didn't have an answer to them. I could barely help and I was among the first owners of the machine.

cheers.

 

Great job Forge were you drunk when you did them but seriously does it run any cooler?personally I think all those extra holes are not needed since the stock cooling is more than fine even when stressed.
Stupid question time for me, was your fan screwed down? Mines was missing it and was just sitting there unsecured it's easily fixed but was wondering if they just forgot to put it in or what.
I will say even unsecured it ran fine, no rattling or anything either and when I added a screw it was the same.
So everything else still running fine?
I might be getting my laptop back after the person I sold it to destroyed the GPU(really, really cheap like dirt cheap )
For some reason the 5870's made from MSI don't like to be OC'd much, but I have a crazy idea that I'm working on.( insert psychotic crazy laugh here)!
I'm 100% it will work too, I'll report back later

 

Let me put it this way: Excellent cooling or not, any laptop would run cooler with the backpanel removed. And, with lots of holes drilled out, that's the next best thing. I suppose I could always do more holes, though.

Sigh. There are never enough holes.

The fan is secured by a total of four screws. On of the screws is on the inside, on the upper right corner of the fan. The three screws by the fan that hold down the backpanel also hold down the fan.

Like MAGIC!

It seems just the memory is resistant to overclocking. I'm running 840/1025 with no problems whatsoever.