~GX660(R) Owner's Lounge~

https://rapidshare.com/files/3649881516/16f130l.rar
And remember to change sata option for sata port , 2 x enabled slumber mode and hot plug.

 

Ok thank you men.

But as i said, my laptop is running with the ssd for few hours now, and when I reboot, the ssd is recognized withouth touching anything.
May I flash the bios with your moded bios ? Or i let my bios like this for the moment...

 

Just do what you want . I think my bios is more stable than yours 30j. In package you have 30l moded. Try and give reply. Generaly msi won`t help you because there is no good engineers there anymore .

 

Hum ok, the method to flash with your moded bios is the same as an official bios ?

 

Those tests are incredibly flawed and we will fare better if both of us compare scores with tests. For example, I don't know where they got those wPrime scores for 32M ... my older 740qm could do it in half the time so I suspect they were using 4 threads instead of 8 (with HT). My current score is around 9.9 seconds compared to the 30+ seconds there... and my 1024M sits at around 332 seconds compared to the 1200+ and this is with 2.6Ghz clockspeed

Their Vantage Scores use physix on which heavily destroys the point of CPU scores. Etc.

The thing is, running on stock, the CPU difference is indeed low, merely 5 to 10%. Running at 2.6ghz you can already see a good deal over 40% performance difference if not more. What's your CPU score for 3dmark11? Mine is short of 7k which is on par with sandy bridges like 2720qm.

I am not saying 840qm is a bad CPU because it isnt, and it certainly is much cooler than my 920xm. But performancewise? since I can OC to stupid clocks, I can easily outperform it on any scenario by wide margins

Some numbers? According to notebookcheck and my previous 740qm, CPUs scores for 3dmark06 stock system are around 3577 for 840qm (3200 or so for my 740qm) and my current system scores 5395. That is a 50.8% performance increase.

How about 3dmarkVantage? typical scores for 840qm are around 12274 vs my 17541. That is a 42.9% performance increase.

wPrime numbers, correct ones, for 840qm show 471 seconds for the 1024 compared to my 330 seconds at 2.5ghz. I took 30% less time to complete the same task.

The only game I noticed a huge increase was Skyrim, going from 30fps on average to 50fps on the same settings (1920x1080 high/ultra).

anyways you get the idea I personally am looking for a good cooler and I think I will mod my laptop with extra copper blocks to help with temps. While gaming I have no problems but I still would like lower tems.

The Asus G75 was designed with mind for silent operation, it is more efficient, less effective. MSI uses only one big fan and it has around the lowest temperatures for single fan machines in the world. It is an exceedingly effective, but hardly efficient, solution albeit a loud one. It was cheaper and easier for them to use single fan as this chasiss has existed since several years ago and they only slightly modified it.

As for my temps, SUPER BURNING HOT! hahaha Prime95 and furmark? Nothing ever taxes my system remotely like that. With those softwares my CPU reaches nearly 100C or so (at 100C it would start downclocking) when running high overclock. My GPU is on the 80s range ( I don't game with 920/1100 yknow, generally 800/1020).

Max temp I have seen when playing games for my CPU is around 86C and thats without coolers or anything, sometimes even playing on my bed. It is high, but not uncomfortably so. I am looking for a good cooler plus using additional copper blocks.

 

What I was thinking as well Ryzeki. Do you have any particular heatsinks in mind? I was thinking of doing the same to my laptop to ensure it runs cool when I install the 7970. I know I will get a decent decrease in temps when I move from the 6990m as I heard it runs hotter than 7970m.

Do you have any recommendations of which heatsinks to get and possibly a good thermal tape to attach them with??

 

Ok guys, I flashed my BIOS this morning and i'm running with your modded bios now. I'll tell you if it's good ! Thank you very much !!

 

Hi man, I see you are running 6990m in your GX660, could you possibly do me a favour and run some benchmarks for me? Just want to see performance comparison 6990m vs 7970m.

If you could, please dont OC cpu, leave it standard, leave turbo-fan off, and set your power profile in windows to high performance profile.
Need scores from your system runing:

1. Unigine Heaven 3.0 stndard edition (Render: direct3d11 / Mode: 1920x1080 4xAA fullscreen / Shaders: high / Textures: high / Filter: trilinear / Anisotropy: 4x / Occlusion: enabled / Refraction: enabled / Volumetric: enabled / Tessellation: normal )
2. 3DMark Vantage Professional 1.1 (P-Score/Standard preset one program starts with at the beginning)
3. 3DMark 11 Advanced Edition 1.0.3 (P-Score/Standard preset one program starts with at the beginning)

Please monitor max gpu temps during each benchmark and please update me with scores I would greatly appreciate this!

I had some issues with my 7970m crashing on any driver, freezing at random times and doing other weird stuff, I believe solely its cards problem but also was hotter than any other 7970m while using 3pipe heatsink which also was micro-polished to mirror shine, temps were hitting out approx as high as 5870m anyway..

some shots if anyone wants to compare (these scores were reached just by using 12.5 7970m MOD driver from Guru of 3D: PC Hardware Reviews and tests , any other driver gave approx 40% lower GPU scores):
PS: temps for unigine maxed out approx 81c+ / 3D mark 83-84c+ if remember correct (no turbo fan)

 

O DAM, 100C? But i think i will go for the 920/940xm if i upgrade my laptop instead. Because i have a cooler master u2 already And i will put on some heatsinks at the cpu heatsink

But i think i will go to a desktop computer anyway.... I cant choose.

 

I am still researching but I will let you know. I will most probably ask Forge directly since he did mod his units. It will be a bit bothersome because there is little space between the cover and the CPU heatsink but maybe we can find small blocks?

I am sure some heatsinks with a decent cooler like the cooler master u2 will be enough to keep everything at great temps!

I was facing the same decision, but I decided to go for the 7970m and enjoy my machine a couple of years more. I travel a lot and a desktop would not help me. The good thing is you can get a desktop for cheap and high performing but I just love my machine too much to let it die/sell!

man I want a cooler master u2, I should buy one soon, looks perfect for my needs and I will totally redirect the flow where it belongs!

I also need to clean my vents thoroughly as well as repaste. Ill do that when my 7970m arrives.

 

drivers 12.6
gpu on default clock 715/900 and 1.100V


3dmark 11 basic ed p-preset
AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-620M Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F1 score: P2847 3DMarks

 

My boot drive crapped out on me after a BSOD. I have bought this as a replacement: OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-256G 2.5" 256GB SATA III SSD. I only have the backup disks that xoticpc included. Can I use those or can I install a downloaded Win 7 Premium from mydigitallife and use the key on the underside of my laptop? I would prefer the backup discs but am not sure it will work considering it will be looking for a specific make/size boot drive which has changed.

2 questions: Will the SSD drive work in this laptop? WHats the best method to get Windows 7 onto the new drive?

Thanks!!

 

you have win7 premium not home edition ?
and key from laptop is different that in backup disk - it's need additional activation , then good to have original key from working system + 2 additional cert file to offline activation (good for clean install from normal disc)

i think it's better to install from normal disc not backup but first install from backup, get the key ( ProduKey - Recover lost product key (CD-Key) of Windows/MS-Office/SQL Server use that to view key from installed windows from backup disc)
also need to get 2 cert file- but at this moment a i don't remeber name of tool (maybe later )

 

This isn't necessary at all from my experience. Simply download the digital copy iso of Windows 7 Home Edition, Both 64/32bit versions will work, and use the product key from the bottom of the laptop. Windows has a bootable disk tool or creator using either a USB or a blank disk for Windows 7 install. Google it.

After creating the disk, change the boot priority in the bios to favor either the DVD or USB, and select custom install, format the drive and partition as necessary, and select install.

That drive should work fine, except at Sata II speeds, so it won't fully utilize the full potential of the drive, but should still work fine. I think the drive itself may require some sort of firmware update before working properly, unless it comes with the current firmware. I think I remember reading that when I was also looking at buying that drive.

 

Hi, to get this drive working perfectly in GX660 series laptop you will need to flash your laptop BIOS to unlocked BIOS version and alter some settings, details on what you need to do are here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/524083-gx660-r-owners-lounge-41.html#post8758780

I use two of these drives in SATA2 mode as RAID-0 setup, so I at least obtain speed of SATA3 like, as single drive performance, and these SSDs perform far the best as SATA2 drive alone, Ive tried crucual corsair,a-data,samsung and vertex3, and verte4 is far fastest for me. Personal experience. Firmware update was not necesarry, I got my drives as 1.4fw, which was absolutely fine, upgrading to 1.5 probably gained few MBPs read in speed but nothing major, you will enjoy the drive same with any firmware, both are stable.

Good luck

 

I recently changed my old hitachi hdd to ocz agility 3 ssd. I needed to unlock my bios to support that beauty.
Cloned my win7 from hdd to ssd. It worked but the thing was that i could not have any other hdd connected, as it just did not want to boot (no matter what was the boot sequence) and if I disconnect the hhd, it booted fine. So i solved this issue by downloading win7 image and just installed fresh win7 (must be the same version u had) and just entered the product key under the laptop battery). It worked just fine and now i am really happy with ssd speed + gonna make my ex internal as external hdd with usb 3.0 case (waiting for delivery).

 

I installed the drive but the BIOS is not picking it up. It is the only installed drive other than my bluray burner. I tried the MSI Recovery Discs but it says it cannot do it at this time. Not sure what to do here...advice?

Thanks.

Can I flash the BIOS without having a working drive in the laptop? Remember, my boot drive died a quick death.

 

Yes you can, use windows 95/98/Millenium boot disc, or make USB boot disc, or make CD/DVD DOS boot disc using any NERO Burning rom suite etc, (please google for further instructions) and yes you can flash your bios without drive, dont change anything but what I have written only, and your drive will be fully seen after this.

Good Luck

 

I flashed using the the file you linked to and now my pc is on and nothing appears....freaking out here. Advice?

 

Can someone please advise what to do, I am really not taking this well.

 

What model is your PC/laptop exactly?
How did you flashed your bios? (sequency?)
Did you power off laptop while it was flashing?
What flash tool did you use?
Try wait see till laptop cools down (the cpu) if its too hot it wont boot etc.
After bios flash you just power-on laptop and wait approx 10-15 seconds till it comes out of the blinker blank black screen itself and asks you to go to bios to modify settings, did this happen and did you wait etc?

Its weird, many users had zero problems with this bios flash and are using it till now no problem.

Let me know what happened

Thanks

 

GX660R-060

I used the bios file you linked to. I then made a bootable usb flash drive and installed the msi update utility to run the update. It said "Done" on the four fields that it showed, then showed the C:\ prompt. I restarted the system, and only get a blank screen. No beeps, nothing. I pulled the battery, cmos battery, pressed the start button, put it all back together and still nothing. Its a $2000 doorstop at the moment. To say the least this MSI has let me down. When I bought it new 1-1/2 yrs. ago it keep BSOD on me. Bad memory. Then 1yr. later the HD died. Now this, which I will take fault for. Either way, I will not buy MSI anytime soon. I like my wifes Asus Republic of Gamers, far superior machine in my eyes.

 

Anyone using USB3.0 driver higher than 2.1.28.0 for GX660?

 

MSi no mater what are pretty well built for the fraction of the cost. Im sorry to hear your BIOS or motherboard went dead, but there's a big chance you get it working again for very little money, need just to resolder BIOS chip, and you can ask the guy to pre-program the chip with before dispatching it to a required BIOS version so its ready to rock when you solder it back in. Just search Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More Online Shopping | eBay for GX660 BIOS or GT660 BIOS, I have seen those around, seller from USA sell them for approx 20usd. If you cant solder the BIOS chip yourself, I can do it for you if you are willing to send laptop (bare with no hardware components like cpu/vga etc etc or complete regardless) up and down and you carry out courier services yourself, or you can bring it to any well reputation based computer service shop around your town. I guess that would be the last thing to do for you right now. These machines are well engineered and are very high competitor to asus or any other make looking at reliability factors, however, everyone has own opinion, so I dont mean to be rude and force my opinion to rethink your own. I hope you get it sorted. Best of luck.

PM me if need further assistance

Mario

nop, I use the latest beta from msi site which is the version you mention above I believe so...

Why asking?

 

RENESAS/NEC Drivers & Firmwares
I originally got 2.1.28.0 from this site "before" msi released it as a beta since the original driver was crap. The site was recommended by a fellow GX660 owner on this forum.

I now see 2.1.36.0 is available and was wondering if anyone tried it yet.

 

I would like to try new drivers of course, its all for the better anyway do you have link for them new drivers?

 

Greetings owners of gx660(R),
i am new to this forum and glad that i find so many information for my lappy gx660R-474UK, I5-460m, 5870m, hdd 500x2 raid 0, 6gb ram, 1920x1080 led panel. Great forum and lounge!
I almost read all the posts here and i am going to buy an ssd samsung 830 for my lappy. For what i saw i need to flash my bios with a modded one to have it recognized in ahci mode right?
My question is: i saw two modded bios in this lounge, the one from UltraGSM and the other from majstermsi. they are same? Are both stable to flash with the hardware i have?cause i see many of you, had their cpu and gpu changed! Ultra i am about to flash yours but i need to be 100% sure for that.
Also when i flash yours, in the first restart the laptop has, should i load defaults for bios as official msi bios guide shows?or it stays as it is?
thanks in advance

 

Do anybody know where i can find a bios to my gt663 to unlock it to GT663 R. So i can use raid 0

 

Just flash 30l bios for gx660 or moded bios. Up to you.

 

i flashed the moded bios and works like a charm!also installed the samsung 830 ssd and works flawlessly in ahci mode keeping the other hdd as a storage and the other one as an external hhd in a case of sata to usb3!special thanks to all of you providing this helpful information!for those who want to know i flashed the bios as the official msi site says from dos, just replacing the official bios with the modded one! for the samsung 830, i just changed the options from sata menu as ultragsm provides!do a fresh install of windows 7 and all ijs fine ! thanks in advance!

i also run a benchmark test with crystaldiskmark of my ssd and the results of read/write speed are :

all: 1/ 50mb
seq: 226.2/214.2
512k: 183.1/189.9
4k: 15.6/25.73
4k qd32: 193/60.79

are these speeds ok ? what is your opinion?

 

nice to hear all works perfect for you, yes speeds are relatively Ok since its sata2 port, if you had two of those SSDs in RAID0 you would make nearly double write and read speeds(but not exactly double, few % less than double) or RAID1 which is also available double read speeds but maintain single SSD-like write speeds.

BR

 

yes i know about the ssd in raid 0 speeds, but i needed storage for games and downloads, so i decided in single ssd!rep for you and majster msi for creating this bios and sharing with us!

 

Do it work to my laptop?

 

7970m arrived this morning! I will be installing later this evening after work. Will update with results and possibly pictures.

 

Please, do some pictures while you be upgrading. I am considering 7970m but I do not know how much hassle is with preparing heatsink for this card.

 

The only hassle is dremeling the sink which takes about 30-60 mins depending how good you are with one. Once that's done its pretty much it.

 

I'm very good then as it takes me 15min Thanks Tom

Welcome back Talon! I hope your GPU is a beast!

 

Hmmm, sorry to be perhaps a little ignorant. Should I be aware of another thread/etc with link for things like the unlocked bios etc?
Interested in dropping a decent SSD in this and had trouble before with a C300 (IDE mode only).

Would also be VERY interested to know how the 7970m upgrade goes. I take it apart from attacking the heatsink with a dremel I should be good to go?

 

Hi pau1ow! This card is great... but the drivers still need some fine-tuning. With Catalyst 12.8 we'll see the real potentials in games (12.7beta is a bit buggy ATM, but performing!).

 

Card is installed! Working great so far. Just ran 3dmark 11. Max temp without turbo fan was 80C, so I am thinking that my thermal pad choice may not have been the best. I tried a new brand.. But maybe they take a bit of time to cure or settle with temperatures. Also my ambient temps is around 27C because I'm in the sandbox. Score was 5271, is this pretty normal for stock clocks and no CPU OC?? 3dmark reported my clocks as 300/150, so did it really run the test on those clocks? Most of my programs won't report clocks or temps, and I lost the ability to OC in catalyst control panel. MSI afterburner not reporting clocks either. Idle temps around 40C.

Update:
Reran 3dmark 11 a few more times, OC CPU to 3.0ghz on 4 cores, GPU at stock, can't figure out how to OC that yet since gone from CCC and Trixx. Will investigate more tomorrow. But temps are finally settling and saw a score of 5466 at 73C with CPU in low 80s. BF3 runs amazing on Ultra settings now!

Will update with a single heatsink mod picture tomorrow, as Paul has said there is already a guide.

 

One picture is worth 1000 words. So, if anybody who is changing video card could post some pictures-tutorial, than he will be very kind ( HE, because I doubt that any girl would do that ).

 

A quick tutorial has already been done here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/659226-7970m-heatsink-modification-5.html
The main (annoying) thing is grinding the heatsink, otherwise this is a piece of cake.

 

Oh, thank you for that link. Do you all have 3 pipes heatsink ? Can I do this with 2 pipes only ?

 

I do have 3-heatpipe heatsink but 2-heatpipe's will also do it

 

Catalyst 12.8 WHQL out!

AMD Catalyst

Installed and working with AMD 7970m. No need to uninstall old and clean old drivers, just install them over your current installation.

 

Thanks hexaae, downloading and installing soon. Want to try and figure out some issues today and see how I can OC my card a bit to see what it can do.

Managed a 3dmark 11 score of P6042 at 970/1450. Seems to be the highest I can go before the driver crashes. Using 12.8s. CPU OC to 3.3 x4. Max GPU temp of 75C. CPU around 86C. No laptop cooler, and sitting flat on a wooden desk. Extremely happy with these results. 6990m had to be pushed to hit 4000 for me. BF3 runs excellent.

 

Guys I'm in dilemma right now, should I sell my GX660 and buy the new GE60?

My GX660 specs: i5-520m, HD 5870 1GB GDDR5, 8GB ram, 500GB HDD -- Pros: Dual SATA for SSD/HDD Cons: 3.4kg, heavy
GE60 specs: i5-3210m, GT 650m 2GB GDDR5, 8GB ram, 500GB HDD -- Pros: 2.4kg, Cons: mSATA slot for SSD (in PH no shop sells mSATA SSD)

In terms of gaming is there a significant boost?

I've bought my GX660 for $950 six months ago
GE60 sells for $890

If im going to sell my laptop the market price for 2nd hand GX660 is $800, then I will spend another $90 to buy the GE60

Is it worth it?

 

It will give you some boost but not that much that you can imagine, I would rather look at the specs more than the model, see if you can get i7-3610m at least, and go for something in lines from gtx675m or best is gtx680m, then you can tell the difference all by 2-3 times smoother compared to your current configuration. The hassle selling your old and buying new which may be 10-15% faster... if you are so desperate for that bit of speed, you may want to try OC your FSB with MSI turbo settings in bios and OC your GPU, you will easily get what youre looking at replacing your GX660R to GE60

Thats solely my point of view and I may be wrong but I think im right

BR

 

Perfect

 

Just uploading a picture of my modified heatsink. One part of the heatsink was modified before from when I installed my 6990m. All you need is a dremel or similar tool with a small disc attachment. Depending on skill it should take around 30 minutes. Overall very easy modification, and the 7970m is a worthy upgrade even from my 6990m. If you're looking to extend the life of your GX660 and play games at the highest settings then I'd say go for it.

Managed to up my 3dmark 11 score to P6114


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