GT680R Review

I purchased my GT680 from GentechPC about a month ago. I ordered on Friday, and it shipped on Monday. The only changes I made was having Blu-Ray instead of DVD, better thermal paste on the CPU/GPU, and changing out the wireless card.

I'm not sure if there's a good pattern for my thoughts on this machine, but I will just put them as I think of them.

My specs are: i7 2630QM, Nvidia GTX460M, 8 GB RAM, and 2 500 GB HDD's in RAID 0. I ran 3dMark Vantage, and got a score of 14,400 (roughly) at stock speeds.

When I first turned on the computer, it went thru a setup process for Windows and installing programs from MSI. It only lasted about 20 minutes for the entire process.

The keyboard for me (while small), is not bad to use. Other people have complained about flex in their keyboards, but I haven't noticed any. The keys do make a soft clicking noise when depressed. There is also a number pad on the right side of the keyboard. The trackbpad is a little left of center below the keyboard. It works well as long as you stay in the middle of the trackpad, but loses some sensitivity as you get towards the edges.

The screen is the standard glossy 1920x1080, and 15.6" wide. As you move away from center, it does wash out some, and becomes worse the more extreme the angle. It is also fairly reflective, so it works best when viewed directly. I've watch both Blu-ray and DVD movies, as well as played some games on it. Everything looks very nice.

If you have watched some of the videos about the sound system on this laptop, they don't do it justice. The sound is outstanding! It rivals the sound that comes from my desktop speakers. I have had it up to 80-85%, and there haven't been any distortions. These are, by far, the best speakers I have ever heard on a laptop. It's simply amazing.

I haven't played a lot of games, but I have spent time playing LoTRO, Rift, and Fallout 3. It runs everything on at least high settings, without any problems. Depending on the game, it normally runs 45-65 fps, sometimes higher or lower, depending on what's happening. However, it has never reached a point that anything is unplayable, it always stays above 30fps. The temperature of the GPU has not exceeded 65c, even under heavy load.

I have tried both the turbo function and the gaming mode function. I haven't really been able to tell that it improves performance, other than the 3dMark06 score went up about 500 points, so it does help a little. The fans are pretty quiet, and only increase under heavy load, or when I push the button to increase their speeds.

As far as build quality, I have no complaints. It was packed in the box well, with plenty of plastic protectors for the keyboard and the screen. I have not had any problems with anything, and it seems solidly built. My last two laptops were Dells, and this is on par with those, if not somewhat better.

I have not ran on battery until it died, but, according to the icon in the tray, it shows it will run for 3.5 hours on battery, with WiFi off, and power profile set for battery savings. I have used it on battery for 2 hours, with no problems.

The laptop is primarily black, with gray around the keyboard. Overall, it looks nice, and I like it. There are also orange lights on the side of the LCD and under the wrist rests. You can change the pattern it blinks at, as well as turning it completely off. It's not something that everyone may like.

This is my first MSI laptop, and I haven't had any problems. I did register for the warranty, first from a page on the MSI site. Then, I had to send in a copy of the invoice/receipt to get the full 2 years. Wasn't really a big deal, and I didn't have any trouble. I have not contacted support or had a warranty issue, so I don't know who good or bad that experience is.

Now, the things I don't like (and there aren't many).

The lid is glossy and has a big MSI logo that lights up. It looks nice, but attracts fingerprints and stuff like you wouldn't believe. It's not a big deal, but looks tacky if you don't keep it clean.

I really do like the LCD screen, but it is REALLY reflective. I probably could have changed that with Gentech, but didn't have the money for that. It's not too bad, unless you are in sunlight or bright indoor lighting. It's very nice overall, just very, very reflective.

There is a camera in the lid that faces you, and I had some trouble getting it to work right. The program that came installed on the computer to run it, wanted a username/password when I first tried the program. It setup the program when the machine was first turned on, and I never created a profile for it, so I don't know what it's looking for.


Overall, I am very happy with this laptop. It's built well, looks nice, and can do pretty much anything my desktop can do. It's run every game I've tried (at 1920x1080), with no problems. The sound is outstanding. For me, this is the perfect combination of size/price/performance. There are bigger laptops that do have better performance, but this is a good size, and is still pretty portable.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling thoughts, and hope this helps those that might be interested in the GT680R.

 

Good review, thanks.

I'm kinda disappointed with MSI about using the 460M though. It's inferior to the 5870 with much less OC capability. With the superb cooling that the machine has it can handle a 470M or 485M easily. perhaps even a 6970.

 

Thanks for the review! It's always good to see some of these reviews from a consumer standpoint. Keep enjoying the machine!

 

thanks very much Kildar for the review!

could you clarify regarding the fan noise... it seems like it is not too disturbing? the previous MSI models (GT660 for example) sounded like a jet engine when switched on turbo (as per notebookreview)...

 

I actually don't even notice the fan noise. Under normal use, it is very quiet. There is a button along the top that you can manually increase the fan. When you do that, or when it is under load (gaming), it will increase and become louder. I can't tell you exactly how much louder, but it is noticeable. Personally, I don't find it distracting or too loud, but some people may.

Kildar

 

Nice Review! Could you post some pics of the machine??

 

Sure, here's a couple: