MSI GE600 coming out Early April

Luckily, there's nothing to it.

1) Pull battery, AC.
2) Turn laptop over, remove panel (4 screws)
3) Unscrew the video heatsink and CPU heatsink (7 screws)
4) Gently pull up heatsink, set aside.
5) Unscrew wireless card (1 screw), unplug antenna (2 cables)
6) Insert new wireless card, attach antenna and screw it back in place.
7) Reverse process, apply new thermal compound as necessary

 

Whats about warranty? Do I void it with this process? I mean removing heatsink and stuff...

 

Well its not quite that simple. If you're going to be taking off the heatsinks then you're going to want to have thermal paste on hand for when you seal it back up

 

What kind of cooler fits the GE600? Should i get the Zalman NC3000?

 

Taken care of by #7...but really, they had enough thermal paste on here to cover 3 Northwood heat spreaders.

 

You seriously don't need a cooler for GE600.

 

Alright thanks for all the useful information. Just ordered my GE600, will be arriving tomorrow.

I cant wait to see how the notebook feels like

Will i void the warranty if i peel off the stickers?

 

I posted this in the gaming section with pics/ in more detail, ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/486197-radeon-5730-questions.html) but since I'm using a ge600 posting here might be more helpful. The basic gist is that I ran into some issues after trying to run the unigine heaven benchmark. First: I can't fullscreen it. Secondly: I can't turn tessellation on, and after looking at dxdiag, it seems that my DDI version is 10.1, not 11. If anyone else has the time to try and run the benchmark fullscreen / check dxdiag on their computer, that would be great.

 

Ow, c'mon, you serious? They're only stickers man

 

Could I trouble you to post the model numbers of Acer and Gateway notebooks you were referring to?

 

Just a note about the Acer 7740g. The HD is apparently 5400 not 7200 rpm, but I can't quite confirm it. I was told that a 5400 rpm drive significantly slows down the overall system performance.

 

Thats innacurate, 5400 rpm drivers can be rather fast, but often the fastest don't edge out 7200rpm drivers, but ill give 5400 rpm this, they're not slack when it comes to performance at all.

 

the acer 7740g and gateway 7901u are very similar: i5/5650, 500gb/5400rpm, 17.3 screen--people on this site reported noisy fan problems and failures with an early run of the gateway. the more recent reviews at newegg do not reflect this problem. the acer also had some hardware problems when i was making my decision to get the ge 600. gateway and acer do not do well in reliability surveys.

 

From reading both forums for a long time op,

Gateway are quite reliable, acer used to have throttle and heat problems, they used to give good hardware but the cooling was insuficient however acer may have gotten a grip lately,

The MSI should be quite reliable though, although 1 user is reporting DX11 errors we are trying to fix.

 

I dunno if anyone saw my original post on the previous page, but if someone who owns a GE600 sees this, can you check dxdiag.exe for which DDI version windows is reading your 4730 at?

 

For anyone who finds they can't use DX11 features, along with AndroidVageta I ended up with a semi-solution. Outlined below:

1.) run dxdiag.exe from the start menu

2.) On the Display Tab under drivers, if it reads DDI 11, you're fine, great for you!

If not:

3) Install Microsoft Hotfix here: The DirectX Diagnostics Tool incorrectly reports DirectX 11 devices as DirectX 10.1 devices on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

That is a fix for a glitch in windows 7 where even if your card is dx11, and your drivers support dx11, windows will still read your card as dx10.1. This is supposed to be only an issue with labeling and performance doesn't matter, but some have reported that this fix will help. At the very least it will give you piece of mind that your system is running correctly.

4.) Check dxdiag.exe again, and if your DDI version still is 10.1, go on to

5.) This is where you have to decide how much you want DX11 on your card right now. For me, it was more of a "need to solve this for the sake of solving it" more than needing DX11 right now (with all 5!!! games that are out, lol). You will need to sacrifice changeable graphics for this (which is why I will be undoing this myself now that I know how).

EDIT: After switching the BIOS settings back to switchable graphics, I found that my the ATI card was actually being read as DirectX11 and all the features of DX11 worked with my card. So I now have both switchable graphics and DX11 works. I'll need to benchmark in 3dmark to see if this whole process affects performance at all.

Restart the computer and hit "del" to get to the BIOS setup menu. In there, you can turn off the integrated graphics and set the computer to run only with the ATI 5730.

6.) When you start up windows again, it will identify your ATI Radeon and auto install some drivers. After this, install the drivers at

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

This will give you the newest version 10.4 drivers for the mobility radeon 5000 series cards.

7.) Restart
8.) Everything should be good now, run dxdiag.exe one last time to verify that you are now at DDI version 11.

 

Also note that Gateway was bought over by Acer, thus the similarity in their notebooks.

 

Can anyone confirm that this works?

 

I've heard that it's got a gaming mouse in the box !! is it ture? if yes could you provide me with the the exact model of that piece? or a pic maybe ?

and that it weighs 2.7 KG with the 9 cell? true?

 

Acer 5820TG for instance.

 

There's no mouse in the box.

I don't know where we'd find a 9 cell...but the 2.7kg weight is for the 6 cell.

 

Heard of eBay?

Whoa!! MSI stopped distributing goodies?

They gave us a bag, a mouse and a handful of catalogs and it came with a 9 cell battery.

Btw the 9 cell is battery(usually) is not flush(it protrudes from the back).

 

Wootz! Finally gotten my GE600

And yes, there is a mouse in the box and MSI also throw in a free backpack. Sounds too good to be true.

 

I didn't get the mouse nor the backpack

 

From whom did you buy it?
Its MSI standard, so its shouldnt vary, until someone sold you a refurb as new or something.

 

I got mine from Buy.com and received no mouse or backpack.

 

This worked for me although not quite the same way. Even after switching to only using the ATI card it wouldn't read 11 even though I had applied the patch. I also go an error after installing the newer drivers, but once I rebooted, everything looked good and I switched back to switchable graphics in the bios and everything still looks good. Dunno if it helped anything but I like things to say that they are at least capable if they are.

 

Some pictures and comparison of the GE600




First Impressions: Looks much better than what i expected, a true portable gaming laptop.
Weighs around 2.7kg, considering the size of the laptop, i find that its quite acceptable.


GE600 and my gaming rig




Front View

GE600 and my Lenovo U350, Left Side view




Keyboard feels nice when typing however, i am still getting used to the layout of the keys.
Kinda wish that the spacebar, backspace and enter keys are much larger.

Will be playing with it with benchmarks, when i have the free time. (sorry for the pictures, was taken with my nokia phone with 3.2MP)

 

Hmm.....Black and Grey feels nicer that the Black and Red.

 

no backpack or mouse from Newegg.

If you're getting more stuff, odds are you're not getting the -002US variant of the GE600.

 

The localization doesnt really matter I guess. But I think the distributors are better than online retailers.

 

to all the dudes who got the mouse & the backpack

will you be so nice to post pics of these items? is the mouse any good for gaming?

and BTW I saw a thorough review on previous pages & he had said that it's got a quite good batt life & .... but was it with the 6 cell? ( )
if the 6 cell is that good I dont really need to carry around that ~400gr 9 cell,Do I ?

 

OK I just ordered this "GE 600"
Let's see if it's as good as all promise...

I will post pics of mouse & backpack if they're included here in germany!

 

Nice! You won't regret it.

 

I was just wondering, what does the warranty cover exactly?

 

:'( No mouse and backpack included in germany.

Guys do you have a warranty seal sticker on your backplate? If you want to upgrade your ram your warranty will be voided? And my sticker is still broken!!!!

 

Hey go one for EU Laws!!!!!

They dont rely on "Warranty void if tampered" stickers for warranty, so if MSI insists(they never will) but if they do then put the law book in their face

 

These are the free MSI backpack and mouse that was given together with my laptop when i purchased it.

 

After some days of heavy using, I'm rly happy with this Notebook.

BUT
1st : there are some problems with external monitor/discrete gpu when watching flash content. It happens only sometimes on youtube but every time here:
ESL TV: Video on Demand - Germany - ESL TV
Screen gets black and no reaction from my notebook, disconnecting HDMI doesnt fix it, I can't switch to Intel GPU also. Rly annoying. So I have to do an hard shutdown.

2nd : I'm using an external 16:9 23' NEC Monitor for gaming. But there are just some 16:10 resolutions available in World of Warcraft or Bad Company 2. So I have to run the games in FULL HD or crappy 16:10 resolutions on a 16:9 screen. I can't switch to 1600x900/1400x900 instead only 1680x1650/1440x900 are available...
I was using a GT9600 GPU before I switched to the MSI GE600 and on the Nvidia all resolutions could been used.

But if INTEL GPU is activated I can choose all resolutions for my external monitor but gaming with INTEL GPU @ 1600x900 rly sucks

 

I just received my GE600 machine yesterday, and was mighty excited about it. I spent most of last night updating and installing things. Today I have been having major problem with the machine. The best I can describe this is that the screen just "freezes". This either happens when entering Windows, such that it doesn't even get passed the welcome screen, or happens after starting successfully and a few minutes into Windows. The only way to get out of it was to press the power button to shut off, then restart again. I went into safe mode, but was surprised that I can't even uninstall software. Frankly, this is my first look at Windows, having been a long-time XP user. At this point I don't even know if it's a software or hardware problem. This could be any of the program that I installed last night, or any of the Windows updates. Since I can't uninstall software in safe mode, I have to try this under normal mode. Unfortunately, most of the time I can't get far or fast enough before the system freezes on me.

Can anybody suggest something to try? Thank you.

 

where did you get this from? I also want a backpack as well

 

I solved my previous problem with restoring to factory default. After installing Windows updates, I installed Settlers 6 Rise of Empire. When I started the game for the first time after installation, the game progressed through opening scene and ended at the welcome screen without the character creation window, so I had to close the game and restart it. Second time into the game, there's no longer audio. I thought that was a strange coincidence, so I reinstalled the game, and it turned out to be no coincidence, as the exact same sequence of events occurred again.

You may be wondering the reason that I posted a question about a specific game here, but besides Settlers 6, I have not installed anything else except the Windows updates. I wonder if this is an issue specific to the notebook, so perhaps other MSI GE600 owners either had experienced it, or can try this out.

 

Can anyone do a review of this? Temps and battery life would be appreciated!

You should probably install other games and see if they have similar problems. If not, then it could be a problem with Settlers itself.

 

It came bundled together with my laptop.

 

Are u buy the laptop online? If so then where did u buy this?

 

Anyone know how to remove the keyboard? I figured it was like the Ms-1651 I used to have, but it seems significantly more difficult to remove the speaker bar area.


*edit*
It was like the 1651, but a pain to get off. Even worse putting back on (touch panel's interface cable should be a bit longer). However, the keyboard is much better now after adding some double sided foam tape.

 

I bought it at my local retail store.

 

Excellent review! Very helpful due to its completeness and quality. Thanks very much - this was one of the best reviews I could find on the GE-600.

Nice work!

 

I am looking at this as an option for general use and gaming... your comments are very helpful - I appreciate that you took the time to share them!

For me the switchable graphics is a big plus, for both battery life, reduced heat, and *quiet* running. When not gaming, I don't like hearing the fan unless it's very soft. Sounds like the GE600 is perfect in that respect.

This looks like a very good all-around laptop and gaming with a great price/performance ratio.

I am very used to the 1366x768 rez and perfectly happy with it. My aging eyes appreciate the help. At laptop to eye distances, this rez is perfectly fine.

 

bron5-glad to help. bagienny's purepc.pl review provided a comprehensive review that helped me a lot.

all typical office apps run great--i am using the ms office 2010 beta now. video and audio editing are quick. i am starting to play with an animation program--ditto.

the integrated graphics give you around 3.5 hrs battery and keep the fan in low (pretty much silent) mode, and temps for cpu about 40c (usually upper 30's).

other than crysis (which since my earlier comments i decided worked much better at medium settings), i play all my games (including 2010 releases) at high settings with gpu temps in the 60c range with smooth frame rates (mostly well over 30+ according to fraps).

i wanted an all around machine that could also game. after using this for a couple of months for a variety of tasks, i have not had buyer's remorse with the ge600. actually, the ge600 has worked better than expected.