Advent 7555 GX - MSI GT725 Clone (Version 2; was 6555) with a little less... thoughts/views/specs (I went to go look/feel it)

I went to personally inspect the laptop today, finally at PC World.

For all, it's the same shell/chassis as the MSI GT725, and also nearly identical spec wise to the Advent 6555 that's now discontinued.

The Advent 6555 had a Blu-Ray drive which the Advent 7555 did not. I believe that is the only difference between them.

I couldn't run/install any benchmarks of course but I'm sure we all know the capabilities of a Q9000 combined with an 4850 HD (512mb)

I ultimately decided to not buy it for a few reasons knowing I will ultimately not live with it:

Screen. As expected it's the 1440 x 900 deal and on a 17inch screen, for some reason, I'm not sure if it's just me, but it's "blurry". If you need to know what I mean, try lowering your resolution by a noch and you'll see what I mean on your current monitor. What was also a shame was that a 16inch HP laptop was right next to it with a superior clearing higher res screen and better speakers (it was them media laptops) and next to the Advent 7555 it ultimately sealed my decision.

Keyboard. Oh dear oh dear my fears were confirmed. Although one could say I can get used to it, I really don't like it at all. It's way too cramped and even the picture someone kindly took for me on the forums was not able to convince me without directly feeling it. I do not have room to plug in an external keyboard either so this is not an option. Likewise I do not have room for a monitor.

Blu-Ray Drive missing. They had it on the 6555, I don't see why they didn't include it here. A shame but not really required, but I like my stuff "all in one"

Speakers. The GT725 and also GT729 claims/claimed to have 5 speakers plus subwoofer. None of that here or it was not installed, but the sound is "Realtek" which I believe is the generic stuff? Either way it sounded like it has 2 speakers and not really that loud, but hard to tell as there were background noise from the other laptops and the shop floor in general. Like above, I do not have room to plug in speakers although I could use headphones.

For those curious, the graphics card is ATI Radeon 4850 HD, 512mb GDDR3 ram (this is not listed on their website, I went into the catalyst app to find out) and is clocked at (assuming default) Core: 500mhz, Memory: 850mhz and Memory Bandwidth : 50gbyte/sec ; I'm not sure if this is good or not as I do not recall at the moment what the GT725/6555 is clocked at by default.


However if you're looking for a cheap gaming laptop, by all means this is very decent. I would've brought it and sell it back later on eBay maybe but I do not have that much money to throw around currently and will like to purchase something to last 2 years at least, so this was important.

I hope this helps anyone who decides to buy it in the future.

Also apparently the 7555 GX is only in stock in Watford, Guildford and London (Moorgate). I was at Moorgate to look and they had 3 in stock including the display model. On the internet it does say delivery only so I guess it's rare for branches to have it on display. The guy who helped done a search on their database for me as I also wanted to see if, by chance, any Advent 6555s were stocked anywhere, just incase.

EDIT: I wanted to add, no, no turbo buttons/keys.

 

i agree that 1440 x 900 sucks. I hate that resolution. 1680 x 1050 is the bare minimum for me.

I have the gx720, which i think has the same keyboard, and I have no problems with it. I actually like the ctrl/fn placement.

I know ebay has a lot of cheap external blu-ray drives.

What notebook are you planning on getting?

 

1440 is great for gaming, only desktop does it look blurry, but the screen is great when configured., gaming performance eats the gt725's.

Its quad speakers and a sub in stereo mode not quad (IT DOES NOT SUPPORT IT )

I love the keyboard.

Realtec device is also dolby certified tech, enhancements on the speakers are amazing and I haven't seen any laptops with better speakers then this yet, perhaps maybe Toshiba with Harmon Kardon, but I have dells and HP's and they don't cut it.

No keys though, you sure?? My machine has just no turbo.

I love this thing.


Cata

 

It's really not bad by any means but on a long term basis my purchase habit is that I buy stuff to last based on the specs.

Cata, what do you mean no keys? There were no turbo keys if that's what you mean as expected.

There was no software for the sound so either it's not installed or it doesn't have it. I couldn't be sure. But if your 6555 got it then perhaps/most probably this will too.

bane: I have not truely decided still yet. Maybe the Acer 8930g with a quad. Maybe.

 

Ahh yeah, i thought you meant no touch sensors at all.

I looked at the acer too (is the 8930) the real big one with one of the coolest touch interface?

I can definately tell you my machine sounds great, and im sure the advent worked really well when pc world released it.

The acer looked great though i must say.

What would you want your machine to do hyper (in longetivity).

 

Blu-Ray is one of my biggest concerns. I'm a weird movie nutter. I recently discovered that BD's have a LOT of extra content (I didn't pay too much attention initially), and well, I'm gonna round up some of my most favourite movies (Terminator 2 extreme edition comes to mind)

I also like to multi-task, as I mentioned in another thread I like to run multiple windows xp instances for test purposes for work and personal reasons (software/website testing). So i like splashing my desktop with many things, so space is quite crucial. While the 6555/7555 will have no issues, space will eventually annoy me. My laptop is a 12inch dell xps m1210, it has 1280x800 resolution for a 12.1inch screen, so moving to a 17inch screen with only 1440x900 is very very minimal/small enough for me to really turn my back on.

I understand the performances of the advent and if I had a bit more of a simpler life I'd go for it in a heartbeat (or if I didn't have so many "hobbies"). This thread is not to drum it down but purely for individuals with similar needs as I do. I have much respect for this laptop as it does rip the competition up which many "average joes" do not realise hehe, not even the PC World guy understood much why I was busy feeling up the laptop with my hands! =p

Yeh the 8930g is that huge one, currently being "replaced" by the 8935g with an ATI card (4570 i think? and quad core q9000), the only quad core 8930g I can only find in comet now (online purchase only). That touchpad interface is a gimmick in my opinion and the laptop is too big to lug anywhere to show it off to anyone lol. But the 8935g loses that quirky pad which kinda saddens me... I do like it in one way .

 

Seems the laptops pretty hot atm.

I nearly got the original 6555 almost a year ago, before mainstream-quad CPUs were mass available. This was one of the first Quad made mass available in the UK - with the still powerful 4850, it was really attractive deal at a grand, but decided otherwise; for even if I wanted one, the model was too quickly discountinued.

So went for a M1730 in the end, cos also in my mind XPS was a better investment in case I wanted to resell; where as Advent branded laptop, no matter how awesome the spec - truth be told just dont hold the value. Unlike most ppl here, I'm the type not likely to be holding onto the same thing for too long. Nor do I game enough to justify having dual 8800m GTX+ WUXGA. Since then I've got rid of the M1730, and realised desktops and a smartphoone work great together - eliminating the need for a laptop, all within a year.

Anyway, you guys enjoy, I talked too much.

catacylsm, hows the laptop holding up?

 

Its holding like a complete fool man

After triping on the ice and it hitting the floor first, tis doing grand with no fault (except some minor vga issue which i had to forcably set)

Had my uncle also get an m1730, dual 9800s? unfortunately that went within a month :/ he rolled on to an m15x, both machines were awesome though and i had the pleasure of trying to fix the m1730 ^^.

Not tried blueray, have the laptop rigged up to a nice big toshiba regza tv, i use that for gaming with the 4850 (mainly hawx at the moment) and im not having any problems running that.

The audio is good, shame both ports run in stereo configuration not quad .

I guess im completely sold by this laptop, temperatures are still cool and crisp too! but i'd like to redo the thermal paste etc.

 

Would it be too much to ask for a writeup for said configuration?

I owned an M1730 for about 3 months. Worst laptop ever.