MS-1761(aka PowerPro R 12:17, Froce 1761) Review thread.

Hello everyone!
I've seen that recently there were a lot of questions about this barebone laptop. So, I've decided to make review to help make things a little bit clear.

Case and specifications

Let's start from specifications of mine.
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM
GPU: Nvidia 570M with 1.5Gb GDDR5
RAM: 12Gb of Kingston HyperX PnP 1600Mhz
HDDs: 120Gb Inetel 320 series, 500Gb Seagate Momentus XT, 1Tb Toshiba(in ODD bay)
Wireless card: Bigfoot Killer N-1102
Keyboard: Steelseries backlit keyboard
All other specs are standard for this laptop.


This laptop has 2 USB 3.0 ports and 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, Gigabit LAN Ethernet port, SDXC/MMC/MS/XD 4-in-1 card reader, VGA Port, E-Sata port and able to support up to 7.1 sound system.




That laptop also equipped with 720p webcam and dual microphone for stereo sound recording. To supply this system with power you have 180W power adaptor and 9 cell battery.




Build quality of laptop is good. I haven't noticed any kind of loose parts. It leaves feeling of solidly build notebook. It's completely made of plastic. Touch panel with shortcuts is responsive. You can find overview of all touch buttons in this video. It's lightweight for 17'' laptop(only 3.5Kg).

Screen quality

Many resellers offers some options when it come for LCD panel for this laptop. I've got stock matte Chi Mei 173HGE. Viewing angles are not perfect.


Previously I owned AUO B156HW01 V4 15 inch 95% Gamut screen(16F2 barebone). So, it's time to compare them.(NOTE: All comparisons made in this review is only authors opinion). This colors of this panel is not so vibrant as AUO V4. I've made some adjustment in Nvidia Control panel and it improved picture quality in my opinion. Here is screenshot of my adjustment.


Keyboard and touchpad

Keyboard is good one. I have steelseries one.(GT780 series laptops have same keyboard) It's nice keyboard to type on. I like tactile feeling of keyboards plastic. I have keyboard with no issues. I like multicolor feature of it. You can adjust colors as you like. However this keyboard lacks one feature of GT780 series. Lightning can be turned on or off only. You can't play with backlit intensity as you can at branded versions of this laptop.



My unit lucky to have synaptics touchpad. It has no problems as sentelic one. I guess MSI has replaced sentelic with synaptics, because of complains for touchpad in early versions of branded laptops. I am pleased with touchpad responsiveness.

Internals,heat and noise

When you open up the bottom cover of this laptop, you will find same layout as GT780 series and 15,6'' laptops have.


You have access to 2 memory bays. Other 2 are located under keyboard. And yes, you have only one HDD caddy. Second HDD is mounted using rubber stopper.
Cooling is organized using one 12V fan. GPU heatsink has 3 copper heat pipes, CPU heatsink has 2. Fan can run at 100% speed constantly. This feature called Turbo Fan. It can be activated by pressing touch button with fan icon.
Noise level at idle is acceptable. At full load it becomes noticeable, but not annoying.
Idle 33.0 / 36.6 / 39.3 dB
DVD 40.7 / dB
Load 42.3 / 49.2 dB
(From Noise level section of this review)

Before starting Temperature section, I must note that all temperature readings are strongly depends on you ambient temperature. So, if you would like to share your temps, please, tell us you ambient temperature first.

My idle temps. Ambient temp 27-28C


I will post some Furmark runs with turbo fan on and off. And combined CPU and GPU stress test with Turbo fan on and off.
Furmark with turbo fan off at 27C. Max temp was 89C.


Furmark with turbo fan on at 27C. Max temp was 76C


Furmark run at 23C without cooler boost(turbo fan off). You can clearly see how ambient temperature affects your GPU temp reading.


Combined tests. CPU was tested with AIDA stability test. All readings were taken at 27C.



If your ambient temps are lower than mentioned here, your temperature readings will be lower.

Battery

9 Cell battery should give you around 3 hours of working time. Here are some tests of battery life.



Benchmarks, overclocking and gaming

Here are screenshots of my system info and WEI



SuperPi for CPU.


Overclocked GPU and Vantage Performance Preset


Some gaming videos:
Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
StarCraft 2

Update
Here are some screenshots of stock and Overclocked 570M(720/1440/1850 core/shader/memory) of Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2. Driver version 295.73.


Battlefield 3.1920*1080 Settings: Textures Ultra, Shadows Medium, all other settings high
Stock clocks Ambient temp 24C. Average FPS 28.8 Max temp 69C



Overclocked. Ambient temp 24C. Average FPS 38 Max temp 76C



Crysis 2. 1920*1080 Settings Gamer preset
Stock clocks Ambient temp 24C. Average FPS 49.8 Max temp 69C



Overclocked. Ambient temp 24C. Average FPS 60 Max temp 76C



I'll be grateful for any additions for this review. Post your Gaming screenshots, your bechmarks and your questions here. Hope this thread will be helpful for future and present owners of MS 1761 barebone laptops. A lot of helpful links and info can be found in this post.(thanks -=$tR|k3r=- for hard work)
Tim4

 

You may want to check your thermal paste. From looking at your temps, it appears that your re-seller did not apply it correctly. While your at it, I don't know if your using the stock paste or not but if you are, go ahead and get some IC Diamond or something.

My 570m's max temp after running Furmark for 1 hour is 73 Celsius. This is with turbo fan off. I haven't ran it with turbo fan on since I don't really think I need it. After playing Battle Field 3 for a couple hours, my max temp is always between 66-69 Celsius. Keep in mind, my 570m is also overclocked to a core of 720.

Ambient temps = 72-76 Fahrenheit.

 

Thanks for info. Will be grateful for screenshots. At 22C ambient I am getting similar temperature readings as yours. 1 hour of Battlefield 3 67-69C. I am using MX-4 thermal paste. These temps with turbo fan off. BTW what is your idle temps? Mine is around 36-37C for GPU at 22C.

 

My Idle right now is 32 Celsius with the ambient temp sitting at 73 Fahrenheit.

I'm trying to use my print screen button to take a screen shot but I don't think it's working. The screen isn't flashing when I press it. Is there another way to take a screen sot or do you know how to get this Print Screen button working?

 

Hey, very nice writeup. It will be appreciated (hopefully) amongst others who are thinking of buying this system.

One thing, you say you got the 2670QM, but CPU-Z (partially) and HWMonitor says you have a 2720QM. What's up with that?

 

It's just old version of CPU-Z and HW Monitor. It doesn't recognize CPU right.

 

Just use paste function to paste your screenshot at paint after you print screened it. Screen won't flash when you press print screen.

 

I thought this was pretty impressive. I've never monitored my Idle temps with Turbo Fan on. Here are the temps with Turbo Fan Enabled. Ambient room temp is 72 Fahrenheit.

 

Same readings at 24C(76F)

 

I had no idea that the Turbo fan would drop the temps 7 Celsius. Maybe I'll try to push more out of my Overclock by enabling turbo fan.

Now for the Max Temp. You said you max out at 89 Celsius after running Furmark? I think that should be way way lower. It should be the mid 70's. Mine is 73.

 

As I said before ambient temps have great impact for tmperature redings of laptop. That furmark run was at 27-28C ambient. At 22C. My Furmark run showed 74C after 11 min without turbofan.



Updated first post with that screenshot. Will be grateful for any screenshots from you. I'll add them to the first post.

 

Christ. 28 Celsius. Were you running your computer outside in Australia?

 

Updated first post with some screenshots of OCed and stock 570M performance.

 

Is MSI Afterburner working with whitebooks now?

 

Yes. Just install nvidia oc tool from driver DVD you have.

 

That's cool. I know it didn't used to work. I like using Nvidia Inspector. You should give it a try.

 

do you really need the Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wireless-N + Bluetooth Combo Card? or only if you have a very fast internet connection? planning to buy the barebone 16f2.

 

If you do a lot of gaming, the Bigfoot Wireless n1103 is probably your best bet. It does wonders to your ping. Now that i have this card, there isn't a place in my house i don't get full bars. I also get a couple bars at work when others cant even see the network.

I would say its worth it, even if you don't have a fast connection. It will dramatically improve your ping.

 

I can double that! I am pretty happy with my N-1102

 

Thanks for the reply guys. =) I've been reaserching for this laptop for about a week now. Its hard to decide which gets in if you have a limited budget.