GS63VR Stealth Pro-001 6RF or GS63VR Stealth Pro-230 7RF?

I recently purchased the Stealth Pro-001 from Best Buy and really like the laptop quite a bit. Got it on sale for a good price they had it at. Truly thought this was the most recent release, until I visited Fry's Electronics yesterday and saw the Stealth Pro-230 7RF. Just wondering what everyone thinks of each when compared to one another. I can still return the 001 and get the 230 if I want to, it will end up costing me $400-500 more than what I paid for the 001 though. Is it worth that?

 

I've got the Stealth Pro-001 as well. I've gone through the same debate and decided to keep the 001. Here is what you gain with the new model:

-i7-7700HQ vs i7-6700HQ, reviews have said there is only a 3-6% difference in performance; 4K Netflix support
-Better screen (IPS instead of TN. Better color reproduction and viewing angles)
-256 GB NVMe Solid State; faster than SATA in the 001. Really only noticeable for audio/video editing, and game load times

I end up using an external monitor majority of the time so the most visible change is not worth a $400-500 premium. With the 001, you have a solid base to work with and can easily upgrade the 1 TB hard drive to a Solid state for a lot less than the price difference.

 

Thank you for the info. I'm never on a external monitor. In your opinion do you think that with the upgrades you mentioned plus the better monitor is worth that price?

I really do like my 001 a lot, just don't want to miss out on some upgrades that would be worth that price.

 

It comes down to your usage. If the screen on the 001 bothers you and you don't use it with an external monitor, you might consider a higher end model. Right now, the Stealth Pro-034 is on clearance for around $1499 online, and $1549 at Best Buy. It offers the better screen and larger/faster hard drive, but has the i7-6700HQ.

I've never seen the 001 side by side with the IPS models, so I couldn't tell you how much better the screen actually is.

 

See now I'm torn. The screen didn't seem bad to me, still doesn't, it's just that the 230 seems that much better screen wise. I might just save my money. This is a tough decision. My first gaming laptop that I actually ended up wanting to keep because I like it so much, just torn on the model.

 

Another thing to consider is that the i7-7700HQ is basically only an overclocked 6700HQ with better 4K support. The upcoming 8th generation Intel chips are said to be an entirely new process with much bigger improvement as far as performance and battery life. For me, I look at the $500 saved, the dropping prices, and realize how much better of a system I will be able to get in 2-3 years, though I hope this lasts longer. That $1799 Stealth Pro-230 will probably drop by $300 or so by the holidays.

If you're happy with the screen (which by the way can be adjusted in the Intel Graphics settings), I say keep it.

I turned up the saturation and messed with the gamma and the screen is MUCH better.

 

Sounds like I'll be sticking to the 001. Thank you so much for the info and help on the matter. Really loving these MSI notebooks.

 

Also if you don't mind me asking, what picture settings did you use to improve your screen? Just got home and am messing around with the settings now.

 

Right click the desktop > Intel Graphics Properties > Display > Color settings. Under advanced I increased the saturation by 2%, moved the hue a bit to offset the yellow tinge of the screen. I set the gamma to 0.9 which seemed to increase contrast.

I notice the screen on my laptop is not the LG that most early reviewers got. It is coming up as a BOE screen with a similar model number and display tech but with slightly higher contrast ratio. It'd be interesting to see if MSI is using different screens on the same model numbers.

 

Definitely possible. I will have to look at which screen I got once I get home from work. On the bottom of the laptop it says it was manufactured 10/16. So it's fairly new, not one of the early models.

 

As much as u tinker..and trust me i went thru all of it...a good screen is a good screen..i eneded up changin the panel on my 001 and its so worth it..i dont think its 500 dollars worth it..but for what the panel cost me along with some 3m double sided tape it came down to 70 dollars all shipped and trust me it is well worth it..there are 3 things to em that make a good laptop experience usage wise...screen, keyboard and trackpad...Speed is subjective as every user needs is different, but screen, keyboard and trackpad are pretty much the same for all...and the 001 ha a great keyboard, trackpad is very usable and more so compared to the old gs60 ..but the panel is very lacking...i decided to not settle and do something about it. If you can get a better model for same price id say go fo it..but to pay 300-400 more id keep the 001 and chnage the panel..which is wht i did...I also upgraded to an NVME drive and put a 1tb ssd form my gs60 in it in place of the 1tb 2.5" one. Right now aside from upgrading ram and thermal past i have as good a GS63VR as anyone

 

For a difference of $400 I would trade it up for better screen and faster cpu. I had an i7 Broadwell 5700 in GT72 2QE , it is faster than an i7 6700, the 7700 is faster than the 5700 by only about 2-% by user benchmarks, the i7 7700 runs at a 200mhz higher clock speed vs 6700 and is 100mhz core clock speed faster than 5700, average users benches show it to be more like 10-13% difference over 6700.

The i7 6700HK imho was not that great of a chip, in fact the Broadwell was better by 5-9%. The i7 7700 also turbo boosts further. Compare the 3 generations 5700/6700/7700
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ/m211019vsm34954

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5700HQ/m211019vsm30103

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5700HQ/m34954vsm30103

If you are solely on the laptop screen spend the cash for the better screen you will recover more later and you are buying 1 generation newer

 

Actually this comes down to Serial VS Parallel processing... and there's no comparison, SATA was a step backwards as even our old IDE drives were parallel capable (able to support multiple commands at once such as dumping large files to the same drive you are accessing a movie from ect)

take it from a Lefty... I can't wait to see SATA go, SATA is for the linear's (right-handed people)

 

This is a misunderstanding of serial vs parallel IO. PATA referred to the data path moving multiple bits in parallel. Command queuing and buffering is the actual protocol.

Parallel data inefficiency at high data rates hit a wall ages ago. This is why enterprise solutions moved to serial transfer ages ago too with SAS and fiber channel. You seem to be implying SATA was a step backwards somehow because it is serialized data. This is completely wrong.

Thunderbolt is serialized data also. Bandwidth is bandwidth. Moving data in parallel creates overhead. Very high transfer rate serial is always better.

Running *operations* in parallel is a totally different issue and comes down to protocol efficiency, buffering, command queuing support, disk controller intelligence and seek time. Nothing is *really* parallel at the disk since it can realistically only process one operation at a time because in spinning rust head has to seek to right track and wait for cylinder to pass. In SSD correct cell has to be energized, etc.

That video is about parallel IO *in general*. As in distributing lots of IO across multiple connections (the way PCIe parallelizes multiple serial connections)

That has nothing to do with PATA.

 

I think this all comes down to cost for enterprise solutions... Parallel and Distributed computing are the natural element of i/o systems and the personal computer itself.

I suppose we're taking a step backwards with NVMe according to your (likely linear) logic?

 

I agree, we are moving away from rotating disks lol, even for large enterprise solutions and we are headed into Optane storage solutions... Rotating disks are a bottle neck sure but even an SSD on a Serial bus has the potential for much greater, unfortunately the Serial bus itself is the bottleneck for SSD drives when they have the potential for so much more if it was on a Parallel bus with a Parallel controller... Welcome to NVMe -- cheaper, more efficient, more logical and more performance ect, one can't fight progress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express

"The initialism, NVM, stands for non-volatile memory, which is commonly flash memory that comes in the form of solid-state drives (SSDs). NVM Express, as a logical device interface, has been designed from the ground up to capitalize on the low latency and internal parallelism of flash-based storage devices, [1] mirroring the parallelism of contemporary CPUs, platforms and applications"

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/19/optane_ssd_released/

 

Left vs Right Hemispheres

(left brain = right handed = linear thought or Serial Processing)

(right brain = left handed = holistic thought or Parallel Processing)

That's why I call right handed people "linear's" imo computers are supposed to be "holistic" not serial/linear.

Both Hemispheres surely compliment each other but from a holistic vantage we have been wasting our processing power with the linear/serial bottleneck... In computers and human communication.

Lefties are on the rise though as more and more are being born every year... Right handedness may go the way of the com port, but likely not in my life time.



http://www.web-us.com/brain/lrbrain.html

 

Not to be a buzz kill here but the left/right brain stuff in regard to certain people using one side more than another is a total myth that needs to go the way of the com port...

http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html

 

lol total myth yep... coming from a right handed journalist/author or whatever

people write with their right ot left hand I assume, humans have a dominant side even though our hemispheres are connected.

I could cherry pick articles all day long too I suggest you read more into it.

Right Brain Technology -- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/technology/06unbox.html