-->*OFFICIAL: MSI GT627 Owner's Lounge*<--

It's FINALLY out! The long anticipated MSI GT627. Post what you're getting/have and may the premium lounge be finally opened!

 

Here's hoping for a barebones version! Either that or some more models.

 

Wow, that thing is hot!!! Praying for barebones as well!

 

def barebones would be sweet. this would be a system even i would carry around small light and has a decent gpu and its very in expensive compared to most others

 

and it's only 5.8 pounds

 

this is not good nobody here bought the msi gt627 yet ? if someone has please post some pic and benchmarks thx

 

Amazon stubbornly persists that it is NOT available yet, but you can pre-order it. (Same for GT725.)

Still not sure what I'm going to get, but whichever I may end up ordering from RK or xoticpc if Amazon doesn't get them soon(maybe they're getting their 627s and 725s all at once... still odd that MSI is snubbing them on 627s though...)

 

I am also very disappointed with Amazon how come they still don’t have them.

Only thing I can think of is the stock they received was enough to fulfil customers who pre order it maybe?

i was looking at XPS m1730 2x8800M GTX,PhysX, how good is that ? any thoughts on that ?

 

MSI US site still has the GT627-218US listed as $1399(why are the smaller guys jacking the price up?), and, apparently, in stock. I'm kind of wondering if the anandtech guy mis-copied the pricing data as I noticed some other typos in that little article as well.

They also have a 3DMark06 score on the 218US page, c. 8200. (screenshots)

Now, I'm just trying to decide whether I should just buy the 627-218US or wait and see what happens with the 725s, but either way I think that next week I'll decide.

 

can anyone give an update on how much battery life you will have on a 6 cell and a 9 cell battery

 

If you notice that is with a P8400 2.26ghz CPU and only 2gRAM. My understanding is that 3Dmark06 is also CPU dependent. I wonder how the P8600 with 4g would score, maybe upper 8k range?

Amazon is now shipping the GT627-216US - Have it by Feb 2!!!!

 

well xoticpc has the gt627-218us for only $1385.15 now

 

Thats the 3% cash discount price. Also the X version comes with Vista 32bit and they ask for more than what it would cost in the store to upgrade to 64bit

 

no one here bought the laptop yet once someone get one hopefully we get the answers

 

yes you are rite but

they only got one in stock lol

edit

frosty is selling on amazon aswell low end model for 1,299.99 thats $150 more?

 

I just purchased one through xoticpc. I will let you know what it is like.

 

Well, since MSI is not giving any info on GT725 availability(need to check Frosty's site again as he at least seems to get good info on shipping dates) I may just go ahead and order the GT627-218US IF it becomes available through Amazon soon.

Small guys w/cash discount: gets wiped out as soon as you add in shipping as plain old ground will likely cost c. $27, and 2nd day c. $58.

Vista 32b: Now why in the world does MSI sell notebooks with 4GB RAM and then ship a 32b OS? After all they're shipping Vista and 64b Vista has about the same driver support as 32b Vista unlike what happened with 64b XP... Not to mention it seems like Vista just LOVES to suck down all available resources.

Benchmark: I really don't think that the P8600 would make much of a difference in the bench after all it is basically the same CPU @ 2.4GHz instead of 2.26GHz(P8400). Ram wouldn't likely make any difference either, although VRAM MAY have, but the 9800M has 1GB which isn't even likely taxed by 3DMark... (Thats also about the score the G50VT had IIRC, so you might want to look at the benchs for that in the ASUS owner's lounge thread. They have games benchs too, which are more indicative of actual performance IMNHO.)

Did we ever find out definitively whether or not the 627 supports quad core CPUs? (Thinking of possible future upgrades already, and I thought that I had read in another thread that the mb was slightly revised from the 620s mb to support quad core pinout.)

Low end model: Not worth it. 1280x800 on a 15.4" screen would be AWFUL. MSI should've got for 1440x900 or 1376x768(?).

Now is it worth $50 for an indefinite wait and possibly slightly better performing 4850 with iffy X11 drivers or better to go safe with a pretty good mobile GPU and solid X11 support...

[EDIT=MUCH later]
Well, spent some time looking around the Ubuntu forums since they're most likely to have the largest volume of traffic searching for ATI X11 driver etc. entries.

ATI drivers still lok to be a complete disaster under linux, although the consensus appears to be that the last 9.1 catalyst drivers are avast improvement. That said none of the ATI ownders seem to be exactly happy, and many mentioned just buying an nVidia card.

So it's looking more and more like I'll end up with the GT627-218US instead of the GT725-074US, which I had really wanted to try, but I guess I'll sit tight a little longer and see if the 725s appear over the next few weeks and if anything happens with the catalyst drivers for X11...

Problems are: video flickering/failure to play or re-size with and w/o compiz enabled, missing textures, random graphical artifacting, thermal monitoring/cooling(probably the worst), PBO problems(offscreen rendering method, default for wine now), etc.

Hmmm... maybe I'll order that ASUS desktop PCIe 4850 that I was looking at the other month from newegg to play around with while I wait to see when/if the 725 gets released. (Was fairly cheapish, c. $110 back then IIRC, of course the 9800GTS were going for c. $105 at the time too... Nov/Dec)
[/EDIT]

 

Finally once you recieved your GT627 post a review please which model u bought low end or higher end how much u paid?

 

I will. I purchased the higher 218 model for $1465 shipped.

 

So is this an issue with Linux users only and not those that are using XP/Vista?

Also I would request that when the first user reviews the computer might it make sense to open a new thread. Not that I have helped but the "Official" Owners lounge has already approached and Im sure it will exceed 3-4 pages of stuff before the first owner has possession to actually provide us with concrete information over speculation.

 

Any pics of this laptop witht he 9 cell battery? How much would it bulgde out?
I heard there was some pics but i cant find them.

 

well i went ahead and got one of these puppies
$1421.05 shipped.

Cant wait.

 

its not going to be to bad imo maybe 1" or so i wouild guess

 

The only thing I dont like is the red stripe going around the laptop.
Maybe in the future I can customize it somehow. careful spray paint or something :/

 

I like how on the description page for the laptop they point out the "aerodynamic" sensor bar.... Gonna be gaming with it on top of your car going 90MPH down the highway or something?

 

The 9 cell is 3/4 out of the rear of the chassis, it is even with the height of the a/c jack so it will not cause any extra interference. We should have some pics up tomorrow night in our notebook photos area so you can see exactly how it looks.

 

Cool thanks

 

Mostly. Most of the people who commented on the Ubuntu forums mentioned that they wondered why the Windows drivers were so much better while the X11 drivers were craptacular. Of course this wasn't always the case, as they used to call their windows drivers something else before catalyst(forget what exactly now) and they started to get a rep for poor drivers then, but they turned themselves around and started the catalyst series of drivers, and the Windows ones are supposed to be very good.

OTOH nVidia's just always had good drivers for both X11, Windows, and OSX. In my case I do most of my "work" under linux and DO like to play the games that I can get native there(I own some), and others under wine, so the lousy ATI drivers are a problem in my case. GOOD drivers for X11 are FAR FAR FAR more important for me than a slightly better GPU. i.e. I'm in a bit of a quandary as I'd really like to get the GT725 but I know that the drivers aren't that good for ATI cards, and likely won't be up to snuff for months if ever. Of course I'd like to get an ATI card for my desktop to see just how bad they really are as I can always easily swap back in my old nVidia card if I have to(eVGA 7600GT KO -- not the best card but it still runs my games and other 3D apps well enough for my current uses).

@inhuman
What vendor did you order from? What sort of shipping did they give you? (I'm trying to hold out for Amazon, and make use of the free 2d with their premium account trial, then cancel it(premium account).) [EDIT] Benchmark me some games when you get it please. [/EDIT]

@selenium
It's meaningless marketing hyperbole. They have to fill in all that space between the sparse specs and pictures with something that isn't an outright lie.

[EDIT2]
Anyone have any experience with open box stuff from newegg? The only price close to what they had in December for ATI GPUs was an open box ASUS 4850...

Or know of another good source of relatively cheap 48XX ATI GPUs? Used are fine too as long as they're guaranteed operable. Don't care if they're missing HDMI/DVI connectors as long as it has a VGA out.
[/EDIT2]

 

I thought the exact same thing when I first read that.

 

For anyone complaining about the g627 price here's an example of what we have available in the great white north: That's an older gx620 with a 2.0 7350 cpu (is that even Santa Rosa refresh?) for 1,302.84 USD, before 12% taxes. I'm not even sure if the gpu has ddr3 or if the MB will support 45nm chips.

 

Must be that Amazon already sold out their GT627-218US and the -216US is now back to pre-order status again whereas yesterday they were available immediately...

I NEVER knew Amazon to do this, as I thought that they would change to out-of-stock like most retailers after selling out.

[EDIT]
Er dude, that's a GX620, and quite expensive for a model that should've been phased out with the GT627 release... After all something like the GX420 could handily replace it in an even more portable form factor...

Also I thought that it was 7.5% GST and 7.5% PST, so 15% taxes...
[/EDIT]

 

I got it at xoticpc. U.S. UPS Ground 3-6 day for $37.
Then xotic has an additional rebate of 2% or 3% if you pay with check, money order, wire transfer or pay pal e-check.
I payed with paypal e-check. It was $1465 i think without the additional discount. I got it for $1428. (-$43.95 additional savings)

It will take a few more days for the pay pal e-check to process though. I also forgot to do 1 more step to make the sale final. doing it right now.

BUT
not that im having second thoughts before i finalize getting the GT627, but if I cancel the order then I could get the MSI GX620-038US for $1082.04 plus $9.99 ground shipping, and maybe tax too.
I know ill sacrafice playing some games in high settings buts I guess i can deal with it.
Also battery life is a concern.
Would i regret it in the long run if I went witht he MSI GX620-038US???

 

Wow! $9.99 grd for a GX620! It cost me $21 to ship my old one back to those my former vendor, and $27 to have it shipped to me in the first place.

Like I said in the other thread, if battery runtime is your game, you should've gotten the 620 + 9 cell battery, o.w. just keep the 627 as it should be more future "proof", although CPUs will be limited once Nehalem gets in full swing... (cya AMD for keeps I think... basically Nehalem gives Intel hypertransport, and given poor AMD CPU performance v. Intel since Pentium M...)

 

Yeah I went ahead and finalized the GT627 order.

Right after I found the GX620-038US for $949 + $24.99 shipping on ebay.
That would have been a $300 saving

I hate it when i make a big purchase and then have second thoughts about it. Hope i made the right choice

 

You can always buy a 9 cell for your GT627.

 

$949? Wow. I'm guessing you got the GT627-216US? I really don't know if it's a better value. The GX620-038US has the WSXGA+, a better battery life, 140MHz faster processor.. but the GT627-216US has the 9800m GS, which should make a pretty nice difference though.

Then for $500 more it's possible to get the 218US with everything the 038US has but with a 9-cell, blu-ray, and a 9800m GS.. and is that really worth the +$500 more?

I've been thinking about getting a GT627 but after seeing how much of a better value I could get with an ASUS G50vt I'm rather unsure.

 

I got the GT627-218. That model comes with a 9 cell

I got the GT627-218 for $1,428.00 total (shipped and all).

But i was having second thoughts because I could also get the GX260 for $949 + $25 shipping.
I would be saving about $300.
Basically I would ask myself is a geforce 9800gs 1gb ddr3, blueray, 9cell battery, and a 7200 rpm HD instead of 5400 rpm worth the the extra $300. (maybe im missing something else?)
This is my first laptop, so i hope i made the right choice
I just hope that with the 9 cell it gets decent battery life, and also the red stripe along the sides of the keyboard,palm rest, and hindges kinda bothers me. The back of the screen red strip is ok. Maybe I can change the color some how with some customization. Its just that it looks kinda flashy with the red, And I intend to use it for work as well.

 

wow yeah the 620's are crazy cheap now..

 

It has a better screen resolution as well. The gx620 had 3+ hours with the 9 cell, so hopefully you can still get some good juice with the 9800m GS in it.

 

hey guys, I've been lurking following the thread for this laptop which looks really great. I just noticed on amazon.com's listing for the GT627, which I check a couple of times a day, that the prices dropped by $100!!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P5GKD0/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=pc

The MSI GT627-218US is now listed for $1,299.99.
GT627-216US listed for $1,099.99.

It still shows the laptops as out of stock pre-order only. This is obviously $100 cheaper than I've seen everywhere else!

EDIT: In case Amazon changes the prices, here's a screencap I took and uploaded here:
http://i39.tinypic.com/30lnf2a.jpg

 

You beat me to it by 16 minutes. *whew* And to think I almost bought one earlier today.

And you're not the only one who checks it multiple times a day. Haha.

 

Nice now the GT627 w/BR is $300 less than the GT725 w/BR. Unless they make a "price adjust" on the 725 as well begs the question....is a slightly larger screen (15.4 to 17), more speakers & a subwoofer, slightly higher CPU with double the L2 cache, and the ATI 4850 vs 1g Nvidia 9800M GS worth spending $300.

Hrmm, not to mention the GT627 will probably be in peoples hands within the near future more than likely before the GT725.

Did I miss anything?

 

haha nice. have any of you ever purchased from Amazon before? I want to get Accidental Damage Protection and as that kinda stuff is usually the re-sellers realm, I'm not sure if Amazon offers it...

 

I have had luck with http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/ to extend a warranty beyond the paltry year and at a lot less than BB offers it for. Not sure if they do "opps I dropped my lappy off the balcony" coverage but Im sure a short call could answer that.

 

Wow! Looks like the arstechnica guy got the new prices right! $1299 for the GT627 is a steal, and boy am I EVER glad that I didn't just order one from MSI over the weekend as I was strongly tempted to do. (Still sort of holding onto the GT725 a little, and more, if it also gets a price adjustment, as $1250 for -074US would be nice...)

Wonder if Frosty & co. have updated their prices yet... need to go check out MSI's shop prices too...

[EDIT]
Went and looked in the MSI US site shop, and the prices were still the old $1399 and $1199. Maybe Amazon jumped the gun a bit on the price updates, although they appeared in the ars blurb as well, and apparently, MSI would've told anyone had they asked.
[/EDIT]

 

Holy **** thats crazy about Amazon!!!

Glad I backed out in the last milisecond on the GT627.
I found someone locally who gave me an awsome deal on the GX620-098US.
Got it for a bit less than $900 new in box and was able to pick it 10 minutes from where i live.
Saving me about $500

 

I wonder if xoticpc would be willing to price match...

EDIT: Apparently not.

 

I just ordered from RKC, that place and its proprietor have been highly rec'd to me by many sources.

MSI GT627 15.4" WSXGA+ Gaming Notebook, NVIDIA® Geforce® 9800M-GS 1GB DDR3 VRAM, Turbo Drive Engine Technology, P8600 (2.40Ghz), B/G/N Wireless, 320GB HDD, 4GB Memory, Blu-ray Drive, Bluetooth, HDMI, eSATA, 2.0MP Camera, Home Premium, 9 Cell Battery http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=133

$1349.99

Looks like a great deal to me. This is actually a present, and I was told to buy around $6k lol, but this has everything I need. The person who's giving it to me was all, spend more money you're making me feel like a cheapskate, and I said no I don't need to, and she was all, ok I'll buy a new one for you next year too then. And I said ok. Probably the next revision of the m15x, which I seriously considered.

I mention all that just to underscore how good I think this deal is. I could have had a loaded Odachi from KN, and I picked this. Of course I have not actually held it in my hands yet, you understand. And of course I am not a hardcore gamer, as games go, I just need this to run the occasional loot grinder. I figure this rig will max out Titan's Quest fairly handily.

Anyway reasons I like:
1. Super cheap
2. Good reviews on gt627
3. Great reviews on RKC
4. Appears to have good battery life for a rig with a class 1 gpu, only the m15x seems to have better

Oh btw the reason this 4 gig rig ships with 32 bit Vista is that turbo mode won't work in 64 bit. Rob just explained this to me.

Anyway I'll have it this Friday.

Oh, free carrying case!

 

Congratulations!! You sound like you have a good set up with your friend.

Did RKC drop their price by $50 as well or were they always charging that much? Please let us know your impressions when the laptop comes in, and how you like using it. I'm curious what the heat is like, and how loud the GT627 gets when in turbo mode and running a graphics intensive program.

Also about this:

Doesn't 32-bit mean that Vista then not recognize all four gigs of RAM? Seems like a catch-22 between having turbo option and getting all 4-gigs of RAM to be utilized.

 

yup ur rite i think it will recg about 3gig of ram

lol u can say that again. i will keep 32 for turbo mode i might install window 7 on mine gt725 when i gets it