GT80 - Question about fan operation, duty cycle.

I am thinking about buying an MSI GT80. I am not a gamer, but I like old school keyboards and need something much faster than my old Thinkpad. The only concern I have is the fan noise might be objectionable. My question is, if one is using this notebook for simple tasks like word processing and internet browsing, what are the operating characteristics of the fans?

 

You can use Silent Option software to control the fans and how aggressive they are. Low fan speed should not be a bother, and the noise from mechanical keyboard should be higher haha. If you are not going to use anything too demanding, you can definitely tweak fan curves for something acceptable even under load.

Just remember that even the GT80 can get hot, if possible, repaste the CPU as the non S GT80 is what, like 4 years old?

 

Thanks for the reply. It is about four years old, but being a gaming computer, I'd imagine it's still going to be a heck of a lot faster for general computing or CAD than typical business notebooks of today. For me, I need a great keyboard.

From what I understand, the CPU is soldered in on the GT80 and not replaceable.

 

Yes, the CPU is soldered, but you can change the thermal paste easily. Depending on which version of the GT80 series you are looking at, it can sport intel 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th gen CPUs. All of them will be at least quad core, with hyper threading, with at least 3.6ghz CPU speeds. The screen is alright, decent colors but only 60hz and 1080p. The keyboard is fantastic. Most of the GT80s sport SLI GPUs so you should have plenty of compute power there

Honestly, a cheaper pascal GPU with an 8th gen intel CPU and a Pascal GTX1060 should provide better performance at this point, unless your CAD can use the dual GPUs be it for compute or whatever you need. Keep that in mind.

Sadly intel quad cores and Maxwell GPUs did not age well at all due to the large increase in performance with six core CPUs and Pascal GPUs. I had a GT80 and then got a GT73, I went with dual top of the line (at the moment, before 980 full) SLI 980m, and my GT73 with a single GTX1080 is faster in all accounts. Plus it was cheaper... the GT80 costed me like 3200 or so, and the GT73 was like 2800.

 

I appreciate the interesting post and will dissect it for information, but bear in mind you're talking to someone who has been running a stock Thinkpad T410 with i5 M820 at 2.4 GHz and 4GHz of RAM for at least three years. I'd venture that even a stock GT80 with 16GHz of RAM will be like lightning to me, relatively speaking (especially since I don't game) and will probably carry me for a lot longer than my last two notebooks. In terms of importance for me, keyboard is number one, and then performance.

You say: Honestly, a cheaper pascal GPU with an 8th gen intel CPU and a Pascal GTX1060 should provide better performance at this point, unless your CAD can use the dual GPUs be it for compute or whatever you need... Yes, but try to find such a notebook with a 17+ inch screen and a real keyboard. I have been looking, and nothing of the sort exists, except for the GT80, which is the only MSI GT80 or 83 remotely in my budget of perhaps $2000.

However, I remain curious about your indicating that the CPU may actually be changeable. On one that's soldered, it must take some very well equipped service center to remove and install. Where does one find a place capable of switching CPU's?

 

Oh, I don't mean the CPU itself can be changed, I mean the thermal interface material used to transfer heat from the CPU to the heat sink. That's the thermal paste that should be replaced.

As for your keyboard need, there are only two main options as far as I know, regarding mechanical keyboard - this GT80 series and a very expensive, limited run Acer Predator 21X. This one is rare and super expensive.

Aside from those, newer GT75 laptops from MSI use micro switches so they are technically mechanical, but have the layout and style of chiclet keyboards found in all current 17 inch MSI laptops. Feel free to check out my review of the GT73 if you want to see some pics of the GT80 vs the GT73.

The GT80 is a huge step up over your T410 haha, massive one.

 

Thanks for the reply. Why should the thermal paste be replaced? Is it a known issue? Can you elaborate?

 

More than known issue, thermal paste tends to dry out over time, and its performance deteriorates. This results in higher temperatures than expected, both in idle and under load. This happens to all thermal pastes, and specially after 4 years. If under usage, your temps seem too high, it might be a good idea to replace it.

You can find disassembly videos over youtube, and there are different thermal pastes you can use. I would recommend IC Diamond as it is an easy to apply, non conductive paste, and its thick/viscous allowing uneven heatsinks to properly conduct temps.

 

Thank you again. One last related question so I understand thermal paste issues better. Is thermal paste subject to degradation if the computer is not being used? In other words, is it safe to assume that the thermal paste would be good on a 4 year old NOS computer that has never been used?

 

Yes, I believe it is degraded even when not in use. It would have to be sealed in vacuum to have no degradation. However, depending on the usage you might only notice temps creeping up, and then considerable thermal throttling in the worst cases.

A never used/open machine is probably in okay state but the thermal paste will have some degradation already.