GT70 0ND-444US Questions!

How many hard drive bays does the GT70 0ND-444US and do they support sata 3? Also is the gtx 675m enough for most modern games on at least high/ultra settings? How much overclocking could I get out of this card before my laptop could burst into flames? Anything else I should know about this smexy laptop when I purchase it?

 

Two bays, plus your optical bay if you opted in for a disk to be installed there via a caddy. And yes, they support SATA III (though I'm not 100% sure the optical drive bay is SATA III; it may be SATA II).

Oh yeah! :thumbsup: That is one of the top mobile graphics cards on the market!

NVidia cards are said to OC better than some of the competition - the 680m is supposedly especially good at OC'ing, but I'm not sure what's considered "safe" or stable still. Usually 5% - 10% is acceptable, both in terms of performance gains + stability.

Yes: You may experience high levels of epicness. If you have any history of serious medical conditions, such as congestive awesomeness failure or mind-blowing uptake inhibition, consult your physician and/or reseller before purchasing.

 

Thank you for your answers! I can't wait to get this beast of a laptop.

 

You're welcome! Enjoy it when you get it (hopefully), and provide some feedback!

 

One last thing. Does this computer suffer from the gpu throttling ive recently read about? Id be a wimp to flash any modifed bios or anything. Thanks!

 

It does come equipped with NVidia Optimus, which cannot be disabled. But I wouldn't worry about that; Optimus is much more stable and has a better track record than Enduro does. Just set your power plan settings/NVidia settings to Max Performance, and as long as you're not running on battery, you can expect some very smooth performance!

 

Nice! Thank you.

 

I think we also talked on the MSI forums as well....

Pretty much everything Prostar Computer said is true....

The 680M can overclock quite a bit (780 MHz core with 'turbo' on, and if you flash the vbios you can usually reach anywhere from 980 MHz to 1100 MHz without any issues....I normally run right around 1000 MHz core for gaming.....).

It will throttle, but if you flash the beta EC (electronic controller) firmware from MSI's website/forums, you don't have to worry about it as much. I'm speaking strictly from my 680M, not sure how the 675M handles it.

I would recommend replacing the thermal compound that it comes with with something a bit better. You can get it online at Newegg or other place, get some Arctic Silver MX4 or something of high quality of the like...it'll help quite a bit.

 

Thank you again sir! The only thing im still wondering about is which EC to flash. I don't own the laptop yet so I cant check the bios or anything.

 

There should only be one BIOS update (more than one revision to the update, but what I mean is the update should apply to the same chip). It's recommended you don't flash the BIOS unless you absolutely need to in order to fix something, or to be able to open up the potential for something (e.g., a component upgrade).

 

So I don't have to flash a bios to decrease GPU throttling or does the throttling only happend when temps are too high? I still will want to possibly OC the card or OC the memory at least and I know nvidia inspector can do that on its own as long as I have turbo mode enabled correct?

 

Nope the stock BIOS should be fine. Now if you wanted to go beyond the OC threshold or change voltages, THEN you might need to apply a new vBIOS, but that's to the card and not the system BIOS. And yes, GPU throttling comes into play at high temps to help cool the card off and prevent damage and/or system shutdown.

 

Thanks for all of your help! what is the highest threshold I can OC the card to out of curiousity using nvidia inspector an forcing P states?

 

You know what? I'm actually not sure! I believe within 10% is widely acceptable as "stable" or safe, but as for the maximum without a vBIOS mod, I have no idea how high you can crank the clock up to. Maybe someone with some trial and error experience can contribute here.

 

Guess Ill be experimenting when I get the laptop.

 

EC and Bios are 2 different things.

The Beta EC helps deal with throttling issues quite a bit. I've observed this on my own GT70, even without a custom Vbios.

I'd suggest flashing the Beta EC to help deal with those issues.

As far as the Bios, you really shouldn't need to flash one, except in some extreme cases (VT-x is an issue that required a Bios flash to fix.....most people don't care about it though).

As far as overclocking the video card, it does depend on quite a few things. Most likely, you'll be able to hit around a 10% overclock....but I'd be willing to bet 15% isn't out of reach either. You might need to replace the heatsink compound in the notebook though, as the stock compound really wasn't sufficient, in my case anyway.

 

Thanks bro! Do you use a custom vbios for OCing the card? and which one if yes?

 

I'm not sure how this directly relates - or rather corrects - the post you quoted. Can you elucidate or build upon that for me?

And yes; BIOS = basic input output services. This is built into the CMOS chip, and is separate from the EC (embedded controller, if that's what you're referring to).

 

Yes. Techinferno forums have a good listing for custom MSI GT70/GT60 VBio's for the 680M. I would go there, and make a few posts so you can download the files and do that. They have quite a bit of good information there.

 

Stating that the only real update that the past few bios's have really addressed is VT-x support. Other than that, the BIOS updates haven't really addressed much.

I know what a BIOS is. I know what the EC is. And stating that the only thing that should need to be flashed, for 90% of the users out that that get this notebook, is the EC.

 

I decided that want the gt70 0nc 494us which doesnt have the 680m it has the 670mx which I dont see a modded vbios for yet but I requested one earlier.