~GX660(R) Owner's Lounge~

Sorry, sorry. Bad habit. No harm or insult meant.

As for the ssd, I really havent heard anything bad about those. Everyone has there problem with each company out right now and SSD's in general because alot of them don't know how to set there systems and then tweak windows to make it run like a bat out of well. I was looking at that one, the Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB and the G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 128GB. Just a thought for you. Remember this a lappy. LOL. Why on earth are you slapping a 940xm in it. Oh, I know why, pure speed with that ssd. That would be a fun combo to have with the 5870. Max out the ram to 12gb and run two ssd's in raid would just be stupid fast. Kinda making me think now. I was waiting to see what the new sandy bridge chips where offering before I thought of doing somthing like that. Nice little inprovement from the frist gen chips on clock speeds.

 

i was actually gonna try and wait for the gt680 to 're-release' but looking at the upgrades/cost. not much a difference. i think the 5870CF is a better card than the 460m from what i read.

however, if they were to put SLI cards in, instead of the base cards, that would make a difference. which is also why i went gx660r instead of the gt660r. just a regular 285m and not an sli...

but, i think im just gonna max out my RAM and play with driver settings on this one. it will be more than enough. maybe an ssd later.

 

To be honest, yes the 5870 by it's self is the better of the 3 cards you mentioned. The only bad thing about the 285m is it's only dx10. Its just as fast as the 460m or faster in some cases. Same can be said about comparing the 5870 to the 285m. The 5870 is the faster card, but in some games the 285m still shines. I have been watching the gt660 for a month now at newegg. I like it for the price for what you get. If they made a gx660 non r with the i7 I would by it over the gt660. I'm still debating about this. I only game, internet, and do my college homework on a computer. I think the gx660-260us would be prefect for that with the i5-460m and the 5870. Thats a base clock speed of 2.53, 2.8 with intel turbo. With TDE button it will hit 2.93 which isnt bad. I would just upgrade the ram to it's full 8GB and slap a ssd in the 2nd bay to run my OS off of. With the lower screen res, I would have a good gaming laptop with room to grow as the newer games come out and still have good fps. One Question for all, If I only used 2 of the 3 dimm slots to fill the ram 8gb, would I be hurting my performance? 2x4gb vs 2x2gb x 1x4gb?

 

The GT660 on newegg is becoming a great deal. i7 740qm, GTX285m, and last I looked as $850 after a $100 rebate.

I got the GX660 a few months back and just upgraded the cpu with a 740qm from the 450m, which was a great processor, but I wanted a few more fps in my games that take advantage of quads like BC2. The upgrade is noticeable, and I gained around 15-20fps with same settings. I was thinking I'd go for a 920xm or 940xm, but decided on the 740, ram upgrade, and an SSD would be better.

I've got 2x4gb gskill 1333 coming in the mail in a couple hours. I'll let you know how it works.

 

Does anyone know how MSI warranty works? I have a 2yr warranty, and just upgraded my CPU, and I was thinking I will hang onto the old CPU if for some reason I have to send it back for repairs. Would a CPU even void the warranty? How about a RAM upgrade? If neither void it, I'll just sell off the RAM and CPU.

Thanks

 

I demand your firstborn child as payment. If not, I will pray to the gender-confusion gods to visit great misfortune upon your soul.

Shouldn't. While triple channel is ideal, the advantage is pretty much unnoticeable unless you're a benchmarking junkie.

Well, do you need it? I mean, My 740qm is perfect for my uses, since I don't do a lot of CPU-intensive stuff.

I'm note sure what you mean by this. Care to explain?

Bah. I've have various female characters as my avatar before, and no one's confused me for a woman. Lurch is the first.

But I do suppose hat explains the pink fluffy costume that appeared in my closest two days ago. And I though I was asleep the entire day, too.

 

not triple chanel, all cpu support max dualchannel

 

Okay, but what about the i5-460m chip? I dont know if I would need a 740qm since i really dont multitask alot.The i5 has 2 cores and 4 threads which should be plenty I think for Microsoft office, internet and games. So its either the GX660-260 or the GT660-003 is what I'm looking at. Thats in my price range as of now. Looking to only spend $1k on a laptop.

 

For your uses, a dual-core should work perfectly, with higher clocks the better.

In all honesty I would get by without a problem on an i5, but I've wanted to say "I own a quad-core laptop" for a while now.

You know, before my gender-change operation and all.

 

I can't find a GPU chip by itself. All I can find is a complete GPU card, fans, wires and all that . Like built for a desktop type thing.

 

I have a small question.
Its honestly been a while since I've been around
I was on the market for a laptop with the 5870

I made up my mind finally and decided to get a MSI 660.

The only problem is that I have no money left

Well, nitpicks aside;

I'd just like to ask what's the performance difference in gaming from a stock gx660 and a stock gx660r?

I mean, I understand the two main differences: resolution and i7

If, for example I load up Metro2033 on the stock gx660, i'd get around 25 avg fps with all settings max (except for AA) and 720p.
If I load it up on the stock gx600r, with the same settings and 1080p, should I be expecting the same framerate? more framerate? less framerate?
Obviously if I match 720p, I'd get better framerate (processor standpoint), but thats where my original query was born...

in more simple term, my question goes as follows:

gx660 or gx660r, WAT DO?

 

I'd go for gx660 tbh, the resolution really helps for gaming. But that's just me though. I also upgraded to an I7 with it, so if you need even more performance later you can upgrade to that.

I also OC'D my 5870 to 1.15V now
I'm running at 900/1075, works really great. Around 17500 in 3dmark06

 

Can't I just lower the res on the gx660r while gaming? >_>

 

you can post and upped you bios hd5870m? what you can overvoltage hd5870? you can post your gpu-z at frequency 900/1075?

thanks

 

Sure, but I believe that'll make it look bad

Yeah, I'll upload GPU-Z in a sec
I also lowered the voltage to 1.125, was getting hot at 1.15

 

Ok. OK. I'm really sorry about that. But I got the wild idea last night to get the i5 model and get it upgraded to a i7 640m. I like the clock speeds of that chip. I figured that chip along with 8GB of RAM and running either a SSD for the OS or a pair of Seagate Hybrids in raid O would be all that I really need. I havent seen anything about the performance increase on a pair of hybrid drives in raid. I saw what one drive can do and I kinda like it for the price.

 

well, a picture can say more than words



i must say im really happy with my laptop, right now trying to overclock a little the vga, i think gonna let it with 770mhz gpu 1050 memory (+10%gpu+5%mem), the temps are fine and got a few more fps in WoW and nfsHP

 

what is your fps in WoW?

also, what server etc?


on a different note, what is the cheapest anyone has seen the Crucial 4GB ram for ? CT51264BC1339 part number to be exact. TD has it for $39

 

Like the pics and performance. I myself wouldnt over clock my gpu since I'm still a noob when it comes to that kind of stuff. But the raid o ssd's are sweet. I just still think there alittle two high for my blood. Maybe just one to run my OS and games off of.

 

found an i7 950 on ebay. bidding at $200 bucks.

this is fun, its like modding my car but with less grease and trips to the E.R. for stitches.

 

LOL, been there done that an have the scares to prove it. It's easier than working on a car, but it's more fragile work. And you have to make sure you are getting compatible parts.

 

yeah, i assume it isn't like building the twin turbo for my car where i can just cut, grind and weld it to fit.

hahahahaha.

 

Thats the fun part about metal. You can always make it fit if you have the right tools to do the job and alittle skill to go along with it. But talking about your CPU you seen on ebay. It's a 950x or a 950xm. I'm guessing its a desktop CPU and I'm not all that smart about what can and cant go in a laptop. I know that a desktop CPU requires alot more voltage to run. Most laptop CPU are 45w makes. So I dont know if what your looking at will be doable are not. If it does work, then you will have a fast azz laptop. I looked at RK Computers and I can get the GX660 with the i7-640m like I was thinking about doing. I really dont think I need a Quad core CPU as of right now. With the new tech they have the dual cores act like quads and the quads act like 8 cores. And I'm not going to even get into the Hex cores. In 5 years we will be seeing CPU with 15 or more cores with no telling how many threads. I've already heard of a prototype
CPU with 50 cores and 200 threads a team in Japan is working on. So the future has alot in store for us gaming junkies.

 

yeah, i have been out of the in depth computer stuff since high school, nearly 10 years now... damn im getting old. i have a lot of catching up to do.

 

I'm in the same boat you are.
Do I need the i7? or should I stick with the i5?
By the way, i7-640 = 2 cores.
Dang it!

 

What are you mostly going to be doing with the laptop? Thats the first question you need to ask yourself. I figured that I wont really ever use all 4 cores of a i7qm CPU for the type of internet browsing and homework I do for college. I might in the future run into a game that likes a quad core better, but I'm a shooter guy and right now Call of Duty isn't CPU bound. Its GPU and the 5870 is the faster card out of the 285m and the 460m. I would love to have a 470m or a 485m to play call of duty on. But I cant afford the Clevo/Sager that offers it. I like Nvidia, I like ATI, but right now its all down to money and which ever I can get cheaper for the performance is the way I'm going. I like the G series because it's so easy to get to your GPU and CPU to repaste if you need too. The bottom cover is heavily vented for maximum airflow also. I like the looks of the Asus G series too, but its to much to bust the case open to repaste if needed and I dont like there bottom cover design. It's like building a motor for a car. The more air a motor can breathe the more horsepower it can make. If that makes any sense. The more air that can be sent into the laptop the cooler it should run is my thinking. Plus you have the raid O if you want it and the 2 (3.0) usb ports also give it a leg up.

 

I'm gonna be gaming on it mostly.
I already finished my IT Engineering, and finished my Master's degree... there's not much more for me to do other than game LOL.

I think I'm gonna go Quad core, what the heck
Just gotta save up a little more...

Its perfecly logical, same thing with cars: the more air you get inside the engine (cooler = better, ofc) the better it is...
Also you have to have a good exhaust system, so the air flows freely out the car also.

 

Is this due for a refresh soon? I am looking to get a new laptop. I was interested in the 8130 but I really dont want to wait that long. I am just deciding if I should wait for the gt680 or go for the 660r. I like the 5870 but I wasn't sure how much different the performance would be.

 

MSI GT680R review (Intel Core i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge, Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M) | Gaming on Laptops - Notebooks, PC gaming and more

Review Update: MSI GX660R Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

I'm not. I'm still chuckling to myself about it.

Overclocking isn't as scary as most people think. The number one most important thing is to watch your temperatures. If your overclock is unstable, the card will crash, you knock down the speeds a bit and no harm done. But watch those temperatures. If your card is getting close to the 90C threshold, think about easing up a bit.

As for storage, a decently-sized SSD (Say, 120GB+) and a large HDD is a great setup. My Intel and Samsung play very nice together.

Well, most definitely a desktop CPU won't go into the MSI. There are some Clevo beasts that are built around desktop-level CPUs, but MSI definitely isn't Clevo.

Depending on how steady you are with your hands, there will definitely be grease involved.

Look for a user named htwingnut. He's like a father of two, but he's one of the coolest old guys on this forum. Don't worry, take a week researching what laptop you want and you'll get in the groove again.

 

If I had the money I'd mostly likely buy the GT680 for the fact that the base i7-2630qm has the i7-940xm already beat in performance from the scores that have been posted on notebook check.

 

yeah, but talking to MSI, they didn't have any idea when the 'fixed' models would be coming out.

and the 5870 crossfire beats the 460m from what i have been reading.

 

Hell, a single 5870 beats a 460m. The fastest single card out is the 485m. It beats alot of crossfire and SLI cards also. The 470m is fast as the 480m and performing better in some cases. I really havent seen any specs on the 6970 yet. So I really dont know about those cards yet and what they will do. Hopefully thats the card thats placed in the GX680 when it comes out later this year.

 

but, essentially, we can just buy that gpu and upgrade ours so long it fits the socket , no?

 

:laugh: You're making it seem as if computer components are like Legos. I'm sure some skill is involved with making changes like that to a delicate machine, like a laptop.

 

Kinda like that. MXM 3.0 a or b is one cards of the GPU makers'. SOme cards you can switch out and upgrade, some you cant. You won't be stuffing a 485m off in a 660. You'd have to upgrade your power brick, your heat sink and fan set up along with the card. The card is selling between $450 and $500 US. There's no switching out GPU chips. It has to be the whole card. And thats where the compatibility comes into play. Finding all that parts that will fit together and inside your notebook too. So in a way it is kinda like Lego's, but with a twist is luck and research on the internet.

 

Hi All,

Recently purchased the GX660R (i5-460m, 2x500gb Hitachi, 6gb ram) hugely impressed so far and from the last 74 pages of reading it will hopefully provide me with enough upgradability and longevity as my recently retired 5 and a half year old Fujitsu-Siemens amilo m3438g which sadly despite pin mods, bios hacks and every upgrade possible wasnt upto the task anymore.

From what I can see, my initial thoughts WRT future upgrades are:

Firstly, disabling the raid0 and upgrading to a 256gb ssd when the prices drop along with a 1tb drive if the z-height will allow?

Following that I will look into buying a quad core i7 at some point. Looking at the intel spec finder page most of the quad i7's state that they are only compatible with 8gb ram? or is that wrong as I thought the quads could use 12gb ram in the gx660r?

next obvious upgrade is the 12gb of ram.. if the quad is compatible with the 12gb of ram that is, otherwise 8gb might be done sooner.

There seems to be huge posibilities with the GX660R. I wonder if there will be any gfx card upgrades possible in a year or two.

I'm not in any kind of rush to upgrade just yet but I think this laptop will keep my thirst for making things faster going for a good while to come.

 

Your avatar contradicts your statement.

 

The Engineering sample of 6970m is 4% slower on average than the 485m. That's definitely a powerful GPU and easily on par with 485m.

I am interested in seeing a possible upgrade of the HD5870m to 6970m, but the price of all the upgrades I want is over 1k dlrs... so I am a bit imposed to NOT spend so much money.

And the GX680 will use HD6870m, which is the exact same card as HD5870m, but with 25mhz less clock speeds, so it is actually a tiny bit slower performancewise. The only avantage of GX680 is the sandy bridge CPU, but since we ca unse 900xm processors with throttlestop, no sandy bridge except 2920xm, will be competition.

 

Well, what the hell are they waiting for? I want my 6970m now. LOL. As for the sandy bridge chips, I was only talking about stock clocks and no overclocking. I'm not into overclocking because I simply dont really know how to and I dont trust myself not to fry my cpu from getting to happy from bumping it and getting stupid speeds.

 

Give overclocking a shot. Like I said before, it's temperatures you need to watch for, mostly.

You push the overclock too high, the comptuer BSODs, and a minute later you're back on your desktop, with no harm done.

 

Forge, have you overclocked your 740qm? I just got this CPU and was wondering how its done. With my T9900, OC was easy with SetFSB, can this be used, and if so what is the PLL?

 

I haven't overclocked, haha, unless you count the built-in MSI feature.

 

i think that if the 6970 is very very compatible with gx660 series, for 15 size laptop and the ac power supply i think not if installed a 9xxXm series

 

I can't seem to burn isos correctly with this BD drive. Burning isos work fine on my HP dragon laptop though. Is my drive broken or something?

When I burn files in imgburn, the device buffer stays at about 93% whereas on my HP, it is at 100% always.

 

I just looked at the 6970m specs on Notebook Check and yeah that's a nice card, but where talking about having to have a bigger power brick. Cards rated between 75-100 watts. Just from the specs they gave on games tried out, the FPS is pretty sweet on all games other than 2 with Ultra settings. This card mated to a Sandy Bridge i7 would be just sweet in the New GX660. As for the model out now, I really wished that companies that sold this notebook didn't care you so much for upgrades. If I go and have the i7 640m that I want put in for me its a $375 upgrade. Do I even get my other cpu back from them since I did buy 2?

 

Blu-Ray ISO file bigger than original? Using AnyDVD+ImgBurn - Doom9's Forum

Check this out and see if it will help you. I dont know jack crap about blu ray. But found this and it seemed like it was talking about your problem.

Actually I found out why there is a size discrepancy. ImgBurn or CloneCD is just doing a 1:1 sector dump, so no more or less data/padding. But it seems the padding sectors are already in the BluRay disc(maybe to avoid interrupt between two layers?). If you check the total size of the files on the disc, usually it's less by a few gigabytes. I should use ImgBurn's "Build Image from files" option, not the "disc->image read" option, that will read the files instead of raw sectors, so I'll save lots of space. Of course, this is not a 100% identical ISO copy, but I don't think I'll ever write the ISO to BD-R/RE disc, so saving my HD space is superb!

Off of that forum there maybe this will help you.

 

I think he's talking about burning DVDs with the BD drive, Lurch.

Hmm. I've burned several Win7 discs without issue, so I'm not sure. You have updated drivers I assume? What program are you using to burn them?

 

I've also burned single layer Win7 disks fine. But, when it comes to dual layer dvds, it always corrupts.

 

Hi, guys,

Take a look at the temps I got with Cooler Master U3 with 3 fans. Max temps after 2h playing COD WAW, turbo fan on. Then I turned it off, got out the game and after 1 and a half minutes temps were those you see on left. Good cooler pad, amazing turbo fan! (stock termal compound).
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