~GX660(R) Owner's Lounge~

this is like torture, can anybody please post that custom bios? I really need it :-(

 

Is there any way to get this modification to a MSI GX740 (MS-1727) bios? I cant get my Samsung 830 detected in BIOS if AHCI is enabled.

Emigrante

 

Is it really better for me to upgrade my MSI GT663 instead of buying me a new computer with Ivy Bridge and a hd7970m? A clevo should be nice

If I'm upgrading my will I buy a MSI 180W charger. And a 920XM and 8ggb DDR3 1333MHz or even 1600MHz? Then the cooling plate from a hd 5850m and then buy me a 7970m?

 

Depends on:

a) Total cost of components and results derived from the upgrade compared with the cost of a new notebook (look in the 7970m benchmarking thread in the gaming,graphics forum for scores).

b) How happy you are about taking the laptop to bits and the time involved in doing so. I found that upgrading the HDD to SSD and the CPU to a 920XM was the easiest upgrade job I've ever done even compared to a desktop. Upgrading the GPU is harder though; grinding the heatsink, getting the thermal pads right and then testing to make things are working OK does take a lot of time.

Upgrading can be fun though!

 

Where? Price? Is it compatible with the MXM3.0b standard and our heat-pipe system?

 

Dell version is compatible (I'm using one now) with Gt663 barebone so will work in the 660R.

I bought the 3 pipe 5870 heatsink from pau1ow and ground away as per the 7970m heatsink modification thread. NBR Meaker used the 2-pipe version.

If your in UK you can try pau1ow and see if he has any left. mxm-upgrade.com were getting some in and upgradeyourlaptop on ebay have the clevo version (I think they can flash with the dell bios though).

Price will vary but will be in the region of 300 euro

 

300? I see 500 on ebay...
Can someone please add the links where to buy it?
What about max temps?

 

oops meant quid £300

temps are good though i've added extra ram heatsinks on the heatpipes but don't think they are necessary. Without them i saw temps of 65-71 deg C when gaming and it flattened out in furmark at 85 degC. this was using phobya 5mk/w pads and antec forumula 7 nano diamond paste.

With the heatsink mod mine idles at 33 in powersave mode, 35-37 in high performance mode. Max temps are slightly lower when gaming. With the fan off (pherins fan speed 'quiet' gx660 profile) it idles at 45.

You will need a 150w PSU minimum btw

 

Okey, a new clevo computer will cost about 16000 SEK but with a I7 3610QM cpu and 8gb ram and a 7970m. And 120gb ssd and segate 500gb hybrid 4gb ssd

And a upgrade will cost about 7000 SEK

But ofc I can change something at the clevo because it cost 11490 SEK at start But with a gtx675m and a i5 and no HDD

 

So, I finally paid somebody to build me a custom bios, look at these numbers ;-)

 

Nice numbers, but without detailed system specs they are just that, numbers.

 

Sorry to bring this up again, but I'm a student and I can't afford to spend 500+ euro on a card that will not work. So first of all, I thought our gx660r was a clevo rebrand, correct?

Second, the dell 7970m seems to work, as confirmed by Tanyrhiew. How about the clevo card? The clevo one is a lot better and cheaper available in Europe.. I guess the clevo needs the modded enduro disabled bios? I also read if you flash the Dell vbios onto the Clevo card, it is bricked?

Thanks for all the help, this is the best forum I can imagine for laptop upgrades.

 

The GX660R is an MIS laptop hence why you are posting in the MSI forum.

As for compatability with the clevo card you could try asking pau1ow as he is a clevo systems builder with a MSI laptop.

 

Hello...Been a while since I posted here

Was just wondering if anyone has upgraded the gx660 with an Nvidia GPU? Maybe 580m/675m or similar?

I am looking to upgrade mine and unfortunately it has to be an Nvidia card so I can take advantage of cuda with some of the graphics apps Iam using.

After a bit of research it looks like the card should fit OK but can I use the existing hsf with Nvidia cards ok? (Think I need a different xspreader at least).

Any info appreciated.

ten

 

A few quick questions, for a GX660-053US owner

1. I have a 460m. Is it worth an upgrade to the best processor? What's the recommended i7 for upgrade?

2. I have the crappy glossy screen, I'd like to upgrade. Is LG Philips LP156WF1-TLF3 the best option? And if so, who has international shipping for it

3. I'd like to upgrade to a 6970m if possible, which one fits the non-R version the best (or is there a difference?)

4. For a replacement power supply, what would you suggest?

5. What's the highest memory speed supported with the 460m? Or the best i7 supported by the 053US?

Thanks! I'm sorry if these have been posted before, but 183 pages is kind of rough to dig through. I'd like to pimp this thing out!

 

help me pls.,my gx660 can't boot after flash bios.
2012 06 30 155 - YouTube

 

how did you flash tour bios and what bios file you have used? also, you may want to try remove bios battery and wait for 10-20 minutes before reconnecting it(meanwhile having main charger and laptop battery out), usually helps on hung cmos.

 

i try remove bios battery mean battery notebook or battery cmos ?
but i try both.,not boot zzz

Have method reflash bios msi gx660 (MS-16F1) ?

 

there is emergency reflash feature on msi bioses I just cant remember it right now , otherwise you can just resolder/reslot fresh bios chip, you can buy them on ebay etc.
try use google for emergency reflash msi bios

 

Anyone have a quick rundown? 940XM vs 720QM? Is the 940xm possible in the non-R GX660?

 

Hi, I have had 740QM which is nowhere far from 720QM, I have upgraded to 940XM and can tell you in games and overall you can feel the real difference where CPU plays any-to-BIG role, if I havent played games and havent ran photoshop/audio-processing apps, I would not be utilizing my 940XM any much more then 740QM... 940XM and 920XM is same cpu only you will be paying more for base clocks 1X higher on several cores, and the rest is same, with throttle-stop you can unlock TDC-TDP-Multipliers you can make it run close to 4GHz but only if your cooling and your PC allows you to run these power-loads... I honestly use stock all the time now, since we have hot summer now and weather was terribly warm like approx 25-30 outside I could not play games at evenings if I OCed to 24x to all cores for more than 30 minutes since it reaches 95'c and powers off. cooling done and redone dozen times to be sure everything is perfect, so I just run at stock clocks which is better thann previously 740QM and I maintain nice heat curve approx 75-85c' max at very heavy load now, and when winter comes Im sure I will be ocing little more, need to be gentle with laptop its not a desktop, u cant mount nice slim liquid cooling pad on it haha

R or non-R both will do same CPUs/RAM/WLAN etc etc same PC

 

Hi i have 2 msi laptops the msi gt60 and msi gx660r and i have done a bit of research on those gpu and the question i like to ask is

1. the nvidia gtx 670m 675m and gtx680m looks very similar so i was wondering if i can buy the 675m or 680m and use it on my gt60 with the heatsink without any mods on modifications on the heatsink? I think for the 680m a firmware might be needed because on the gt70 website they added a firmware download for the gt70 and a new vga oc download for the gtx680m oc clock speed.

2. Can i use the nvidia 670m on my gx660r from my gt60? I mean does the gt60 heatsink fit into the gx660r because i dun have a dremel kit and i dun really want the hassle of modifying my 5870 heatsink from the gx660r.And if the gt60 heatsink fit perfectly onto the gx660r can it work with nvidia optimus and will nvidia optimus get into the way or error on gx660r?

Hope someone can enlighten me.

Thank you.

 

I'm not so sure about the CPU part there... I heard the R version supports a higher version of i7 processors.

 

"heard" sorry but what the *__ ???
Be sure, there is nothing higher in the chipset cathegory of GX660 series either R or not R than 940XM which is basically same CPU as 920XM only factory clocks are 1x higher in some cores. there is no higher clarcksfield laptop chipset CPU ever built than 940XM, after goes only sandy bridge and after again ivy bridge chipsets and carries own series of CPUs which are different to each platform before, which are nothing to do with GX660 series laptops.

First of all GX660 and GX660R are only bios SOFTWARE ROM differences, R stands for RAID support , and of course comes with some better specifications as the main upgrade series from standard nonR, like 1080p LCD and some other misc upgrades (if any really)

can anybody tell me if my GX660R will be able to pull off with these specs using Targus Liteon 180W psu or I need something bigger?

i7-940XM
12GB DDR3 1333
120GB OCZ Vertex3
1000GB Samsung M8
and Im aiming at runing with
ATi Radeon HD 7970m ...
Will 180W PSU hold just fine or it will be reving out of 180Watts?
Thanks Kindly!

MOD EDIT: AVOID FOUL LANGUAGE!

 

Mine is similar spec and running fine on a 150w so 180w should be just dandy.

 

Those will be the specs I shoot for, hehe. I'm pretty sure the non-R version only supports 8GB maximum memory, though, that's the only difference. An update from 800mhz to 1333mhz RAM speed would be killer though.

 

Awesome man! Thanks for quick response !

Just ordered the 7970m from pau1ow so will get it running soon enough!

Let me ask you what is the average temperatures that you maintain with your 940xm?? I keep average 45-65's celsius iddle and just light working, on heavier multitasking no big apps, just internet and pile of IM's and I get average 65-75'c odd time... I have polished to mirror shine the heatsink cooper pad that goes in touch with CPU crystal ceramic chip and used Arctic-MX4, retrofitted various thermal pads on mosfets nearby CPU, tested various sizes to replace OEM pads, to maintain same height so CPU heatsink doesnt tilt and IC's have good contact with heatsink as well, I cant hold of better temps and I cant OC too much if I game I most keep stock clocks due to higher temps... Ive must went somewhere wrong I assume...

Im not sure about that, since many users I seen previously upgraded their GX660 with GX660R BIOS to get RAID feature, and all of them had 12GB ram, so maybe its just bios limitation if any, RAM speed can be adjusted in advanced bios settings, I recomend "Auto" setting instead of fixed speed, so RAM autoselects best optimal speed, which in my case was 1333Mhz, and by factory default bios was locked to force 1066Mhz

if you already have 8GB RAM I assume its 2x4GB chip cfg, so just get one more identical 4GB chip as already installed, and try for yourself, it wont cost an arm, I think I paid just 20eur for mine on ebay including postage...

 

Hey,

When I first got the 940 and dumped it into the 660 I experimented quite a bit overclocking it with throttlestop which I mention earlier in the thread. However the temps I was getting were just not worth it so I stick with stock right now.

Currently I idle around 45-50 and under full load Im easily in the high 80s. I use quite a few graphics apps and rendering out hits all cores 100% which I have left for many days before with temp bumping around high 80s, early 90s, no issues so far. This is with some MX4 and not a lot else.

I was planning on trying some mods to see if I could lower temps and squeeze some more out of it but I decided it wasnt worth the hassle as its just rock stable at stock, although I would love to dump an Nvidia card in it soon to use cuda for some graphics apps. Cant seem to find anyone whos tried it though

 

Yes I was playing a good bit at first with Ocing and stuff and it worked likely on lower temps at the first days of testing .. after I got 180W psu and tried again it turned to be higher temps, maybe coinsidence of warmer atmosphere conditions, or more watts available to CPU alone, or something else Im unaware of... however stock clocks works wonders for me too, so Im happy with it but having such cpu and not oc'ing even to silly 24x@all cores makes me feel bit disappointed due to not able to maintain operational temps for longer period of time... however cooling wise best option is have some breezy air feed to underneeth the laptop, but as Ive seen drilling holes in plastic trim of the laptop etc and similar altering of chassis is not my taste, altho laptop is designed pretty well and has just as much vents as it needs, where drilling holes under the fan etc would lower hot air velocity trough the components that it was sucking hot air from before, like motherboard itself and vga aluminum heatsink spokes etc... my understanding...

 

Heh heh, yea I was a bit disappointed also I could not crank it to 4ghz on all cores and keep it stable when I first got it. I got a bit consumed with all the messing around trying to get it working higher and the mods I was planning were rediculous. I realised I wasnt actually getting any use from the thing so settled for stock, and tbh it runs lovely now and is a joy to use especially over the 460m it came with!

 

exactly, alot OC results would not give me too much of usability, more the trouble hehe
Yes, I vote for stability and real standard power over OCed and maybe instable setup. Just ordered myself Vertex4 OCZ 256GB SSD to go instead of my Vertex3 120GB, so all for me left to upgrade is the LCD , to one that gives best viewing angles and it aint glossy, hate watching my own face in screen
I love the new stuff by NVIDIA that they made recently, talking about new physics engine where partiles will move in so unique ways like in reality and will never repeat their moves etc, so if this engine would be utilized in gaming so much it would literally would take over whole gaming market from ATi, unless ATi would build own "physix" engine that could behave uppon request of app like NVIDIA card

 

Oh that Vertex 4 sounds very nice

Do keep us informed which LCD you go for in the end. Ive been thinking about changing mine for another which is not glossy but had not really investigated the options as of yet.

 

Yea, I kinda have massive storage in secondary drive which is 1TB but it aint my primary drive coz its HDD and its slow as phuck so I had my vertex3 for a while which traveled from one laptop to other till now and sadly it was just 120GB which most times lacks space for my current needs, so 512GB ssd would be too big waste of money on my pockets and 256gb will do just fine, plus its faster than vertex3.
PS: I will have some goodies for sale if someone would be interested, like 120GB OCZ vertex3 SSD, i7-740QM OEM, Few 120W PSU's OEM, German Layout GX660R keyboard, 5870M graphics card with no heatsink, and later Glossy AOUIE4 I think its version LCD panel, but its last thing to go out of my laptop as for now Im still using it..

Yes Im unsure which LCD model is the very highest model, coz I want one thats the damn best of the best for GX660R, best colors, best viewing angles, best blacks and whites, best Fps and etc, and NON GLOSSY ofcourse... I guess few months and I will be on the hunt for one

 

If you look for the best 15,6" LCD matte screen for your MSI, you need the AUO B156HW01_V_4.
It is very bright, very nice angles and blacks - also 95% Color Gamut.

 

I currently have AUO B156HW01_V_5

is my different to what you listed just by the glossy surface or is there more difference?

 

I had the V5 glossy one and this is the worst screen ever - very bad blacks and awful viewing angles - that was still full hd so wasn't bad for my use (I finally upgraded it to the V4 though )

The V4 is much better by far than the V5 - there was a nice thread on NBR listing all the differents 15,6" LCD screens, I'll try to find it for you so you know the reviews and testings that have been done

 

I need help to overclock my cpu. I can't overclock it. I am in the special BIOS. (SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+INSERT) And i can only set 7% max att the turbo thing. And the non turbo, it only stands at 255.

Please I need help. I need to overclock it to get higher fps...

And I have buyed a new notebookcooler. Cooler master U2

Dear, Filip

 

If youre runing 920XM or 940XM cpu dont use bios OC menu - its useless! Use throttle-stop only

Whats your cpu you want to OC?

 

In about a month, when I get back from a project, I will upgrade to an HD7970m, Killen N1103 and 180w PSU.

As for 920xm speeds, I normally use 20/21/23/25 for 4/3/2/1 cores. Mi idles are between 50-60C while normal browsing etc and my max temps on full load do get up to 95~C or a bit more using wprime calculating 1024M.

For gaming my max temp at these clockrates is 80 so far. I plan on getting a cooler pad too, since I normally use it as a dekstop replacement.

 

Okey, it is a i5 460m.


I get about 75-80C on the cpu when i play bf3 with cooling pad...

EDIT: With the bios overclocking i get at 2960mhz with turbo.
I tested throttle-stop but i can't get it work.

 

nice, but Killer-N 1103 has 3 aerials, thats the difference between 1102 version I have, and GX660R has just two aerials, so buying 1103 is kinda useless unless you rip the lapop apart and install third aerial... hmm

I want cooling pad too, just dont know what to look for... want something that would have clip for power cable plug to be clipped on so it doesnt steer down so much as cable plug is massive chinky and cable is heavy.. Yea I use it all round and at home have no desktop just this as all in one rig

Todays thrill ... :


cant wait to reinstall ... hope to get 7970m and do fresh install all at once... hope I get my GPU tomorrow

Update of the day:

7970M arrived this morning!!! MASSIVE THANKS goes to pau1ow on this site! Super Service! *****10/10*****



hope I will get it all fitted tonite!

 

I have great envy right now

 

Very nice Ultra Let us know how it performs.

I also owe pau10w a thanks. Sent me a B156HW01 V4 which is all installed and working great. Lovely panel.

ten

 

cheers

well thats all that gonna be left for me to do to fulfill the build to last bit, is to get that fancy LCD... I didnt know I could get it of him too... I must pm him soon

 

Hmm it might of been his last one but worth checking with him

I might be going for a 7970m instead of Nvidia after all. Seems one of the apps I wanted it for will work with ATI gpus so thats good news.

Other thing I noticed other day with the 940xm. I turned on 'extreme chip' support in the advanced bios as I had been running with it off since getting the chip.

With it enabled I noticed a decrease in performance. So I did a few crude daily use tests and with it on it correctly clocks at 2.1ghz when at 100%. It also didnt seem to boost much when using less cores. However, with it disabled I am getting 2.4ghz when at 100% and it boosts a lot higher when using less cores. Performance seems enhanced a nice amount with it off. Interesting

 

As I mentioned before I tried tinkering with bios Extreme Edition menu options and it can drive your cpu crazy or render your pc unbootable so you have to unplug bios battery to reset cmos and boot with default settings again. if you leave that feature off, theres nothing to worry windows manages this feature just fine, plus you install throttle-stop and enjoy whatever OC potential you can achieve real time with least risks, while if you set wrong settings of multipliers in bios and then booting time takes place it uses all 4 cores at max while booting , it may cause crashes or freezes due to too high/wrong settings etc, so I prefer keep bios OC settings off and manage whole lot myself from windows

 

Let us know the performance and temps of the 7970M!

 

Mine for comparison idles in the low to mid 30's though I have stuck some ram heatsinks onto the GPU heatsink. Every little helps!

When gaming its gets up to the mid 60's but the card is not fully utilised in the game i play most. Furmark got to 85 in a 15min test

 

Does anyone know anywhere to source a replacement keyboard for the gx660? My F1 key is on fritz so I need to get a new one.

I contacted MSI who said they will only fix it if I send the laptop back even though I am happy to do it myself. Not really an option as I need it daily and ive butcherd the thing to pieces id rather not send it in.

I bought a cheap one off ebay that did not work and all the official ones are like £50 with mad shipping prices.

Id happily use one that does not have the fancy gaming lights on as long it works. Any help appreciated !

ten

 

Ive spare german layout keyboard for GX660R in plain black and white no red marked buttons tho..

Ok so I instaled the 7970M but I must have followed a wrong picture on modifying the heatsink I think...
I looked at this:


however, I decided to do some sandwitching with arctic MX4 and built up so thought missed areas s omostly everything is in good contact. However I will remove heatsink now to inspect again what has pressed down most and whats least... I duno if its just my impression or what but to me heatsink itself looks warped in the middle. (it was first time I removed it when I got machine which was 99.99% new , heatsink screws were covered by warranty ceramic stickers intact) Im not complaining about failing anything but my 7970m iddles appeox 42c all time and on load I got once approx 70-75c in crysis2 ultra settings and dx11+high res texture pack, and driver sf maxed out. Its not powering off or anyting but I seen alot ppl report iddle at approx 30c for 7970m... also msi afterburner sliders are on the top and wont alow me to increase just decrease, Core:850mhz/Memory:1200mhz.

Im using 12.6 official driver just downloaded from amd site with amd driver download tool. WHen tried read info with gpu-z 6.2 latest version it reads garbage like somebody showed before on their screenshot 1024MBRAM and some other invalid crap, I cant monitor sensors/temps in gpuZ so I dont know how well I placed thermal pads/ccompound etc. and most important I tried runing hwinfo tool and it crashes video graphics sending screen to dead black and hdd led begins blinking repeatedly, this happens during startup when program identifies all hardware...
Im gon take some photos again and will post soon

ran crysis more , disabled dx11, with turbo cooler reached 83c+ on gpu... not nice