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    MSI 16F2 barebone Review

    Discussion in 'MSI' started by dave-p, Jul 17, 2011.

  1. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    Well now that I had some time to put my little baby together thought I would do a review of the unit. My main intent is to discuss the Barebones unit from the assembly perspective. I will add some additional benchmarks etc as well. but thought it would be nice to see the how to aspect of this laptop.

    Purchased my MSI barebones from RK Computers, and ordered the I7 2720 QM CPU off ebay ($ 180.00 ES unit), added 8 GB (4 x 2 GB $ 75.00)) of Muskin PC3-8500 DDR3 memory, a 256 GB SSD drive (from my old M17X), and a 750GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive ($75.00). Last I installed the Intel 6200 series Wireless card. ($ 25.00).

    My only bad experiance was the UPS Customs Broker handling charge of
    $75.00, they are by far the most expensive Customs broker fees on earth. I wish Fedex was an option to Canada, they usually charge around $ 20.00.

    I should mention, I had bought 8 GB of corsair (2 x 4 GB) SODIMMS but they were not compatilbe with the laptop. I found after the GPU software was installed the laptop would freeze up. (CMS04GX3M1A1333C9) looks like my son will be getting a memory upgrade on his Dell lol.

    Installing the CPU, and fan assembly was quick and easy. The bottom side of the laptop has a large access panel that revels the CPU, GPU, hard Drives, and 2 of the four SODIMM Slots. The other 2 SODIMM slots are located under the keyboard, which by comparison is a bit more tricky to get to as the keyboard has clips along the top edge that have to be carefully pryed down to remove.

    Installing the hard drives was easy as well with the supplied mounting bracket, and screws. it should be noted only the upper part of the bracket should be secured with the supplied screws (see picture) as the bottom cover mounting post forms part of the secure mount for the hard drive bracket as well as three of the four fan assembly mounts.

    The PCIe wireless card is easily accessed under the front bezel, and can be accessed without removing the keyboard.

    The supplied CD has all the drivers required (except wireless of course) for my Windows install.

    I did try to install XP for the fun of it, but BSODs was all I got. had to try for the fun of it, but Windows 7 was the only real option for me here.

    Over all I am happy with the build quality of the laptop, The keyboard feels decent enough, and the only real short comming of the laptop is the lack of a lighted keyboard. Hopefully we will see this in future offerings.

    IMO what puts this barebone unit in the fore front of many others is

    1. Price
    2. 3 Spindle Design (CD ROM & 2 Hard Drvies)
    3. Light weight
    4. GTX560M GPU

    After installation, the unit powered up with no issues, and BIOS menu was straight forward. I did have to configure the AHCI option as it was in Raid mode by default, which was normally an option to be enabled in BIOS upon initial boot up in any other laptop I have used.

    I will add more pictures and review points as i go here.

    Any questions feel free to ask.

    Cheers

    Dave
     

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    dave-p, Jul 17, 2011
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  2. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    More Pictures added
     

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    dave-p, Jul 17, 2011
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  3. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    BIOS screen shots
     

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    dave-p, Jul 17, 2011
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  4. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    GPU- z and CPU-z screen shots added
     

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    dave-p, Jul 17, 2011
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  5. icrot

    icrot Notebook Enthusiast

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    hi dave,

    is that BSOD caused by AHCI mode enabled ? will the drivers (still have) support XP by chance ? never try 7 yet, as XP is all i get :rolleyes:
     
    icrot, Jul 18, 2011
    #5
  6. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    I can try to play with it more next weekend when i get back home
     
    dave-p, Jul 18, 2011
    #6
  7. CpxAzn

    CpxAzn Notebook Evangelist

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    What kind of battery life are you getting with it.

    Tim4's review says that he gets over 3 hours of battery life, but I see many people with the GT683R saying that they get barely over 2 hours of battery life.
     
    CpxAzn, Jul 18, 2011
    #7
  8. Rorschach

    Rorschach Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    so how much was the barebone unit?
     
    Rorschach, Jul 18, 2011
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  9. mrs1986

    mrs1986 Notebook Geek

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    Maybe the GT683r whit the lights up cant reach 3 hours of battery life??

    Dave-p, thanks for the review, it would be nice to get some nice photos of the looks of the laptop, how looks the lid whitout any brand and thinks like those, thanks a lot, i'm willing to buy this though
     
    mrs1986, Jul 18, 2011
    #9
  10. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    I will work on getting some more shots of the laptop done over the next few days

    initial Battery tests gave me @ 3 hours browsing the internet
     
    dave-p, Jul 19, 2011
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  11. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    I paid $ 789.00 USD or there abouts
     
    dave-p, Jul 19, 2011
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  12. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    added some more pictures as requested
     

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    dave-p, Aug 20, 2011
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  13. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    Last added benchmarks Vantage scores with and without Psyx enabled / disabled, CPUIz and GPUz scores, and my SSD benchmark
     
    dave-p, Aug 20, 2011
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  14. cmbhjv

    cmbhjv Newbie

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    Do you know how to get bios updates for this barebone?
     
    cmbhjv, Aug 20, 2011
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  15. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    you have to get them from the reseller directly, you cannot use the BIOS from the 683 it will brick the laptop
     
    dave-p, Aug 20, 2011
    #15