MSI GE600 coming out Early April

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Thanks, opositive! I now have one on order. This thread has been most helpful. Everything I can find is positive and the "balance" made here between portability, gaming prowess, cost, etc. seem just about perfect to me. Your experience and findings re: games seems to be in line with what I have been able to find elsewhere. All in all, it seems the 5730 surprises most people and performs better than they expected.

I'm going to post a summary of what made me decide to buy a GE-600 in a moment and once I have mine in hand, I'll come back and post my impressions.

Thanks again, congrats on your GE600 and have fun!

 

Why did I just order an MSI GE600?

First, thanks to everyone on this thread for all the good info - a big help!

Here is a summary of why I decided to go for a GE600 as opposed to say a GX640 (which I also considered):

I think 98% of all current games will run maxed out, the 2% like Crysis, Metro and others, will have to be "tweaked" to get best performance, but should be very acceptable.

I found some benchmark comps and some videos on YouTube w/same 1366x768 rez, same 4GB RAM, i5-430 CPU and 5730 1 GB. Games such as Mass Effect 2 were running very smoothly in the videos. Crysis on high with a few things like Shadows turned down to medium ran well. COD MW2 ran well by all accounts w/high settings. Fallout 3 ran well though I could not verify what settings were being used. Just Cause 2 on high looked good, as did Left 4 Dead 2. The notebookcheck Dirt 2 video looked fantastic, enough so to make me want to get the game ASAP, as it looked like great fun and the visuals were primo. Risen looked good - neat combat in this game. (Definitely check out the notebookcheck.pl and other videos on YouTube if you want to see good examples of real life performance with current games. There is also a good unboxing video from notebookjournal w/some good close ups if you want to see what this rig looks like.)

So I don't think gaming will be a problem for this rig. What I found mirrors what opositive reported here. Gaming goodness aplenty in the GE600.

The 5730 seems to perform just a bit better than the Nvidia 250m/350m and ATI 5650 and not quite as good at the Nvidia 260m/360m and ATI 5850/70. So, to me, a very acceptable balance for a portable gaming rig. I am willing to give up absolute peak performance for cooler running (I hate fan noise), more battery life, and probably longer system life (hopefully).

The icing on the cake (for me), is that I also get the switchable graphics capability in a decent performing gaming laptop. So, when not gaming, I can use the Intel integrated gfx and save battery, heat, and stress on the system. So cool and quiet running and no "wear and tear" on the 5730 during the times I'm just web surfing and doing other tasks that don't need the gfx boost. I see this as a big plus.

Personally, I am very fine with the 1366x768 rez on a 16" screen. 1444x900 might have been better for web surfing and such, but my main laptop at the moment (MSI X-340) is a 13" 1366x768 and I am very happy with it. My eyes will appreciate the larger text when surfing and when playing games, a 720p rez is more than enough at laptop viewing distances. People forget that this rez is the same 720p HD resolution being used in many 32-42" HDTV's (until recently) and everything looks very fine, so this is a non-issue for me. (My HDTV is 720p and perfectly fine.)

GE600 vs. the GX640: The GX640 would be a big step up and the price is right. However, as I said, low noise is important to me, that, the switchable graphics and lower cost did it for me. I like the sleek look of the GE600 and the balanced features, performance, and cost. Hit the sweet spot for me. I think I will be plenty happy with the gaming performance, and when I need to do more mundane things, I can benefit from cooler running, longer battery life and less noise.

See bagienny's excellent review here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.purepc.pl/msi_ge600_mlodszy_blizniak_ex625&sl=pl&tl=en

 

@Bron5,

Thanks for all your input/insight. The GE600's specs/price were very attractive to me in the beginning. Also, MSI's warranty is special too, considering the company is less than 10miles away from home. Furthermore, I really appreciate that MSI makes (I think) most of its own components that it puts in (I assume it does, if anyone can confirm thanks).

I will not, unfortunately, be getting the GE600 because it's too large of a notebook to not have better specs. However, after youtubing "PCSX2 i5-430m ", an Acer with similar specs to the GE600 was shown to be running the emulator with little problems. This prolly has nothing to do with your post, but I wanted to thank you for posting it, and encouraging me to do some further lurking on the googlenetz.

Thanks again, and enjoy your new toy!

 

@dookie11,

You're very welcome and very nice of you!

I agree about the size, I'd be even happier if it was 14" or 15.4" - but I can live with 16. Better cooling, I guess, and room for the numeric keypad. I do see MSI's 3 yr warranty as a big plus - worth about $200 in itself, especially considering the accidental damage coverage if you register (1 yr).

I've owned Acer and it was a decent notebook. I looked at some Acer's, too, but just felt the GE600 was the right fit for me. That, plus I've been very happy with my MSI X-340 which I got for a great price awhile back.

Good luck and have fun with whatever you end up with.

 

A few more notes of interest:

The GE600 w/integrated gfx matches my ultra-slim X-340 in battery life! Wow! That's certainly a surprise (both ~3.5 hrs max).

The ASUS N61JQ which has the same 5730 card but a quad core i7-720m is often mentioned as a close competitor for the GE600. The GE600 actually outperforms (not by a significant amount, of course) in many gaming benchmarks except for CPU-bound games where Asus has the edge. The N61JQ is bigger, heavier, and runs hotter. No switchable gfx means much shorter battery life as well. Both are nice, but I obviously liked the GE600 better.

Again, kudos to bagienny for his excellent reviews of both systems at purepc.pl -- lots of good info and detailed gaming benchmarks.

And to opositive - IMHO his comments on the GE600 are spot on. I bought for mostly the same reasons he states.

 

In my search of a solution to my original problem, I turned to updating driver of system devices. However, I have found a few strange things that I don't know if it's by design or a problem.

(1) Under Display Adaptor, it shows Intel Graphic Media Accelerator. Its driver is shown as from ATI. This is not ATI Mobility 5730 card shown as Intel GMA, isn't it?

(2) The driver for Intel Management Interface on my notebook is older than the one available on MSI's site, so I installed the new one then restarted the notebook. However, after doing all that, the drive remains 6.0.0.1179, not updated at all.

(3) I am not sure which item on Device Manager I should look for the driver information for chipset. On MSI's site, it shows the chipset driver to be something released in Nov/09. Having bought this notebook less than a couple of weeks ago, I assume the driver should be updated. But I checked driver information on a few items in the device manager about chipsets, and they all say 2006 for release date. This is something I don't dare to touch unless I am sure about; don't want to risk messing up the notebook.

There are still a few other devices that I can't figure out, but I think for now those are enough puzzles for me.

 

@namsilat, I cannot help with your questions, but I will say this. After having owned many systems and having myself been very OCD about updating everything, I am now completely the opposite. I now routinely turn-off auto-updates and update as little as possible. Occasionally, on systems I use online a lot, I will get the security updates. (And I always have anti-virus sw installed, of course.)

I do update from the manufacturer's site for known problems or fixes. But only if I need the fix. Otherwise, unless there's a problem where I know an update will resolve it, I leave well enough alone. Since I have taken this approach (especially with laptops) my systems have been much more stable and given me far less problems. Many will disagree, but it works for me.

Good luck!

 

Hm. I underclocked my 5850 to 100/100 and the battery is also just over 3 hours. It certainly wasn't before, but...

This is kind of a manual switch I suppose, but I have two icons on my desktop to switch from high clocks to low clocks and back with one click. The GPU temperature while underclocked is lower than the threshold level required for the fan to spin up to an audible level. Although I must say, without these modifications, the GX640 can be pretty damn annoying sometimes, when you're just browsing the web and the fan spins up and down every 5 seconds because the GPU temperature is literally hovering around the threshold value.

That's not to say that the GE600 is a bad choice, though, by all means. The 5730 is a very good performer, especially at the GE600's native resolution. At that resolution, it has been shown that the 5730 rivals the performance of the (underclocked) GTX260M in the Asus machines. At higher resolutions, though, the narrow bandwidth and low memory speed chokes the performance.

 

Hi Bron5,

Since you are the only one that has responded so far, could I trouble you to look into Device Manager in your Control Panel, to see if the display adaptor on your MSI GE600 notebook shows the ATI 5730 card or the Intel GMA?

I went searching for drivers not because of obsession about keeping things up to date. I have an audio problem that I hope to fix by doing so. It's in an earlier post on this thread.

 

Apologies, namsilat, didn't realize that.

I don't actually have my GE600 yet, on order still. Won't ship until 17th, so not exactly sure when I'll have it in hand, but when I do I will be happy to check for you.

 

Hi Bron5,

Not a problem and thank you for responding. Perhaps you can even install Settlers 6 to see if the audio problem is reproducible on this notebook! :]

 

I found a solution to the audio problem affecting Settlers 6 on MSI GE600. It appears the Intel GMA is the default GPU, and there's an option to switch to ATI 5730. I first tried switching to ATI card, but the audio did not come back. What needs to happen is to install the game while the current GPU is the ATI card, once I did that, the audio works.

That also answers my own prior query about why the display adaptor was shown as Intel GMA. Now I need to figure out how to set the ATI card as the default card when the notebook boots up. I am also puzzled why the ATI card is not supported by drivers from ATI.

 

Hello !


Could you do a test on COD 4 on Native resolution please ? ( settings , min , avg fps )

Thank's a lot !

 

Normal ATI drivers don't support notebooks with switchable graphics

 

Good for you! And I believe you have found something that may well help others who have similar problems with their games. I'm sure many will not think to make sure they've switched to the 5730 before installing their game, though it makes sense when you think about it.

Small price to pay for the really, really neat capability to have "live" gfx switching capability (versus having to reboot). I can remember some saying this would never be possible. It's an awesome feature.

Enjoy your game!

 

Well, until someone gets around to that for you, here's an educated guess based on the results for the 5650 posted on notebookcheck (but I've seen faster elsewhere):

ATI 5650 1 GB -- 5730 estimate (conservative)
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (2007)
low: 204.3 fps -- 235 fps
med.: 76.4 fps -- 87 fps
high: 37.3 fps -- 42 fps

Posted just for fun! Maybe someone else can post the real deal.

They look low to me as Crysis ran at 29-33 avg on high (purepc.pl). Far Cry 2 high at 41 (1355x768) and so on.

But the gist is that COD 4 should run fine w/high settings on the GE600. Most, if not all, current games will. The 5730 deserves more respect that it gets (when paired with 1366x768 rez, higher will be slower). The MSI engineers aren't stupid, they made a good, nay excellent match!

 

I just recently received my ge600. I love it so far but there is a problem that I couldn't seem to find solutions to.
It has to do with the touch panel. The CinemaPro button is not responding at all and the two buttons for switching the graphics worked randomly only a couple times and now they don't work anymore.
Anyone had an experience with this or know how to fix it?
Edit: also, the Fn+F4, F5, F6 aren't working either. I haven't checked all the rest, but most of the other functions are working. It turns out that Fn+F6 works (the webcam) because I loaded up webcam companion 3 and I could toggle the webcam on and off. I just can't see the little picture that used to show up in the bottom right. Those images also disappeared for volume and maybe for the ECO engine button? Anyone know how to turn them back on? (Sorry guys, I'm a noob)

 

reinstall the system control manager.

 

Sweet thanks. That fixed the function key problems, but the touch panel still has it's issues. Any ideas?

 

Hmmm...not off the top of my head. Do the volume keys work?

 

Yeah, everything works fine except for those 3 buttons.

 

I don't know...give MSI a call, I suppose?


I'm returning my GE600 for a refund. When I got it out to download I Hate Mountains for Left 4 Dead, I found a big blue vertical line going down the middle of my LCD.

On a whim I checked Newegg, and was still being offered the chance to return for refund or replacement. Newegg doesn't have any for replacement, so I have the choice of return to them for full refund, or return to MSI for repair. I'm going for the refund. Great laptop, would recommend to others, but my atheistic brain is seeing this as a divine intervention.

 

Alright thanks for your help.
I contacted MSI tech support and I tried a couple things that didn't work.
One issue did manage to be solved, after running a recovery I got the switchable graphics buttons to work.
The CinemaPro button is still not responding and MSI recommended the BIOS flashing/update thing. I don't know if i want to go through that just for one button...anyone know how to turn on CinemaPro without the touch button?

 

Yea! Got my GE600 yesterday - much sooner than expected. That's the good news. Bad news (for me) is they just dropped the price $70 from what I paid and Amazon won't refund the difference (I asked), but c'est la vie, I guess.

Unboxing and setup went fine. Very smooth. Other than the much hated Norton, not much junkware to remove. Overall first impressions are positive. Very lightweight and fairly compact (~ 14 3/4: x 10 7/8") for a 16" laptop. Very nice looking design. I like the color (as someone said, more titanium than black), sleek, nice bevels and shapes to the case, ports fairly well laid out, like having the exhaust in the back, and so on.

Nice recovery disk tool. Burned two DVD disks and also made an ISO which I can back up to a HDD somewhere. Came with a DVD for drivers, utils, and manual and a Win 7 CD or DVD (didn't open it to see). That's better than many of the higher priced brands are doing these days. They give you nothing.

Touchpad is great, better than average. I like the feel/texture of it and the scrolling works fine. Buttons a wee bit stiff (i.e. clicky), but they're separate and work fine. I'll probably use a mouse most of the time, but I'm very satisfied with this touchpad.

Sound is average (for a laptop) until you press the CinePro button and then it really perks up and sounds much better than average. Great for DVD's and gaming. Pretty good for music, though IMHO a bit harsh. But gaming sounds were very good for a laptop. Not as good as my Toshiba X205-S9800, but far better than your average laptop. The woofer really adds to percussion sounds and the lower range. Not really at sub-woofer levels, but very nice nonetheless. Lots of "presence" in the gaming sound. Thumbs up from me, especially given the compact case design.

As others have commented, the blue lights are a bit bright. Case and build quality seems good. Very minor flex in case if you twist from corners, which you should not do normally, light plastic versus some of the very thick hard kind used in bigger laptops, but solid enough. Less weight and strength than ASUS, but also less cost. Should be fine for normal use. Screen and hinges seem solid enough. I open from two corners then lift from the middle, did not notice anything untoward. Again, overall feel, looks, and "vibe" is good.

I could hardly wait to try out the switchable gfx which was the big draw (along with the 5730) for me. I'm happy to report that it works great! Switches over smooth and easy in just a second or two. Very clean, no glitches. The LCD screen itself seems fine. Fairly typical, I'd say. Plenty bright, very sharp and clear, good colors. Games looked great, desktop looks fine. I've seen better and I've seen much worse. Overall acceptable. Need more time with it to really get a feel for it (e.g. black levels, contrast, etc.). But have not noticed any issues. Typical viewing angles, etc.

The resolution is fine for gaming and the large text is easy to read. If I were doing a lot of work on this, I'd want a higher resolution for this size screen, I think, but for gaming, and especially for gaming with the 5730, I think it is a perfect match. The GE600 is pretty much going to be a dedicated gaming and entertainment rig for me, so no issues. (And even if I were going to use it for everyday stuff, I think I'd be fine with it. My X-340 has the same rez in 13" and I'm happy with it.)

Here are my windows experience scores:
Processor - 6.7
Memory (RAM) - 5.9
Desktop GFX - 4.7 Intel GMA and 6.7 ATI 5730
Gaming GFX - 5.2 Intel GMA and 6.7 ATI 5730
HDD - 5.9

So we have good scores for the two most gaming critical areas, processor and gfx.

Not sure how much time I'm going to have over next few days to play with it. But when I get more time to try out some newer games, I'll come back and post again. So far, the few games I've tried looked great (but mostly older (e.g. Two Worlds) and not enough to really test this rig.

By the way, it runs very quietly most of the time. When gaming the fan gets a bit louder and occasionally it will rev up, but during normal use it's very quiet. It got warm during gaming and I do mean warm, not hot. I've had regular laptops that were warmer under use (non-gaming), so this is very good news. I'll check temps later, GPU-Z was all I had handy and it does not work w/5730 sensors (at least the version I have). The air coming out the back vent during gaming was definitely hot, so the MSI cooling seems to work very well.

More later when I have time.

 

"anyone know how to turn on CinemaPro without the touch button?"

No, but I'll poke around and see if I can find out when I get time.

 

I'm having more problems with my ge600 =(
After the recovery I ran to fix the switchable graphics buttons videos on youtube have stopped working. I can watch the video for a couple seconds before the screen flashes black and the video shows only green. I fixed this somehow before the recovery, but I do not know how I did it.
All these problems are making me sad and consider returning it or something...

 

A few notes as I continue to play around with my GE600 (still haven't had much time, though). Still no hardware issues (knock on wood), everything seems to be working fine. Have had a few sw issues (minor) with Win 7. I am not too impressed with Win 7, not sure what all the shouting is about. This is my first Win 7 laptop and I don't see where it's any big step up from Vista. (I have another laptop with Vista that is rock solid. Don't think it's ever crashed or locked up. I was a die hard XP guy and did not move to Vista until just a couple of years ago.)

A few minor sw issues. First, some old games don't like Win 7. Second, some old games don't like the CinemaPro sound system (e.g. Far Cry) and they crash and hang the system hard (have to hold down the power button). With CinePro off, no issues with the same games (except Far Cry does have Win 7 issues, apparently, when working it looks great). Other than that, everything working pretty well, so far. [ Edit: appears to be a Win 7 issue, not CinemaPro]

After some more time, I'd say the speakers are pretty darn good for a laptop and music does sound pretty good overall. Gaming sounds great, especially if CinePro is active. The screen is pretty good, too. There are better, but I'd say it's as good or better than most out there. (But I miss the screens from some years back that were definitely of a higher quality. But the laptops cost 3 times as much, too.)

A really nice looking laptop, in my opinion. I'm very happy with it so far.

 

I feel for you, buddy. I'm sorry you are having so many problems. I've stuck with the stock system, so far, I just let windows do a few updates for security and such. Still using the base drivers with everything. Not seeing any problems, but I'll keep an eye out and I'll let you know if I run across anything. I did have one sw program (Kantaris) that would not play a certain DVD properly, but when I tried the same DVD using WMP it worked fine.

Have you checked the MSI site? I saw they had all the latest drivers and sw utilities posted. Maybe try updating any video sw and drivers and see if that helps?

Good luck!

P.S. After re-reading your posts, if you have not done anything funky since you got it and just had these problems out of the box, I think I would consider returning it for a replacement or refund. I have not had any trouble with my buttons working or anything like that. Something does not sound right. I think I might try a complete reformat and reinstall and if that didn't do it, back she'd go.

 

Yeah the problems were out of the box. The only "funky" thing I've done is run a recovery. Other than that I've only installed/reinstalled drivers and such. I think I posted this earlier, but the MSI tech support suggested updating the BIOS and Firmware using a MS DOS bootable flash drive. I don't know a whole lot about computers, so would it be worthwhile to try that first then if that doesn't work go and completely reformat it or instead to reformat right away?

 

Yes, I think it would be worth a try. The Bios/Firmware could definitely affect how the buttons work. Make sure you have very clear step by step instructions from MSI before you start. (I did see a post on another site where this fixed similar problems. Don't remember the details as nothing much specific was posted. But I remember if had to do with the same buttons.)

Good luck! I very much hope to come back and see a post saying it went well and everything is working properly. I know from personal experience what a bummer it is to be in your situation. Hopefully, MSI can help you get it straight.

 

I got mine a few days ago & I srsly like this machine it really stands for its name " gaming series " ! I could play MW2 on maximum details and the natural res at ease with very good FPS.
The only game that I've had problems with so far is GTA IV Although I got 29 FPS in benchmark test when I play the game and start moving the car it freezes for 1-2 seconds and then continues...again freezing for a few seconds ...continuing....and the sequence goes on !!
And I really love the multitouch touchpad ! it's like a baby iPhone


BTW I got the mouse & the backpack and it's just like the one that someone posted it's pictures earlier ; I bought mine from a local retailer.

& I've got a couple of questions , 1st how could i know the version of the BIOS? and will the switchable graphic feature be disabled if I install an ATI driver from AMD's website? and I would terribly appreciate it if u tell me how to fix that issue with GA IV

 

So...I tried the BIOS update and it did not work. In fact, it made things worse. Images on the screen began showing up in around a 500x400 pixel rectangle in the middle. Additionally the keyboard stopped working. I followed the instructions so I don't know what went wrong.
Edit: I got the keyboard to work again, I just restored the default start up in the setup, but now I still have the same problem with CinemaPro.

 

Just a note - the problems with some games hanging the system that I thought was caused by using CinePro -don't think so now - think it might be WIN 7 conflicts, the game itself or an ATI driver issue. Many games run fine, but a few older games, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, etc. (all old Nvidia oriented games, of course) will hang the system hard. Only turning off the power works.

But, others play fine and look great w/the ATI 5730 and show no problems. Many of those are newer games, so I think the fault is probably in the games, not the system. I have a bunch of old games and some run fine on certain laptops, not at all on others. The combined wonders of MS Windows, DX, and gfx cards I guess.

Playing FlatOut now (2006 Racing Game) using a Logitech Rumble Pad 2 and everything is working great, looks great, sounds great, etc. - a fun game easy to just pickup and play.

So far, all buttons and hardware still working properly and no complaints.

 

Congrats, I didn't get the backpack and mouse with this one. Got 'em w/an earlier model and they weren't bad. Yes, the GE600 seems to be a pretty nice system for the price. Nice looking, too.

Yes, you'll screw things up if you install the ATI drivers unless you do it very carefully. Someone posted steps elsewhere on how. You have to set the ATI card as the default in your BIOS, install, switch back, Something like that. So find those instructions before you do anything.

Myself, I'm not upgrading anything right now until I have to. With new systems, I've found it best to stick with the stock system as much as possible for the first 3-6 months. If some games don't work, I'll just set them aside and play the ones that will. In my case, I just don't have time to fool around with it so much, so I prefer to keep my system as stable as possible.

But if you take the plunge, be sure to tell us how it goes!

Oh, on the bios, go into admin tools, system configuration and print/view the system info and you should see the BIOS version listed.

 

Sorry, have no idea how to help you with this. I think you're stuck unless MSI can get you right. MSI should at least be able to tell you how to start CinePro without using the button. I mean, it's just an executable somewhere. You might even be able to assign it to the P1 key (F4) as that's used to start a "user assigned" program. I've been pretty busy w/work and family, but if I get time, I'll try to figure out how to do that.

I just don't think you should be having so many problems. I'd seriously consider returning it and getting a new one or sending it to MSI to be 'refreshed' and fixed. I know it's a bummer, though.

Good luck!

 

Here are the instructions for installing ATI mobility drivers on GE600 which I found on MSI Forums site (also posted here earlier by Final Spirit and possibly others). Thought this might help -- ymmv - be careful and since I have not done this myself, I guarantee nothing!

[/QUOTE]

 

Problems with some older games hanging system may be related to 64-bit WIN 7 as per this post from another site -- found similar posts elsewhere. Found some kludgy fixes mentioned, some worked for some people, not others. I may try to fix it when I get time and will post here if anything works.

Also saw references to periodic slow down in frame rates and other issues under WIN 7 for many games, esp 64-bit.

 

Can anyone recommend a good util (preferably free) for monitoring GPU (and maybe CPU) temps? Several I've tried don't seem to work properly on the GE600 or Win 7. GPU-Z, for example, runs OK, but shows no temp data.

 

That was a great help Bron5 :>
Huge thanx

I will try this driver installation procedure as soon as possible and post the results. (cos I desperately want that GTA IV )

 

You're quite welcome.

Good luck!

 

Notebookcheck: Review MSI GE600-i5447W7P Notebook

Review on notebookcheck. Can anyone confirm what they are complaining about?

 

Honestly i have no faith in notebook check. Each reviewer is different and their rating system is terribly flawed. Everything seems to get 81%, no matter if they think it sucks, or the best system ever made for Christ himself.

 

Well, Alienware, Apples, and mobile workstations have their highest scores, so I guess they are indeed too much into workmanship. I kind of care about it too, but oh well... its not the most important thing and they have been wrong about MSI before IMO.

 

Which complaints? I skimmed it over quickly just now. On the LCD screen, I sort of agree with them. But as they point out 80% of all LCD screens today are the same. If you've seen some of the really nice screens, you'll definitely miss them. I sure do. Otherwise, I would say certainly just as good as most ASUS and other comparable units.

On their complaints about the case, I have no clue what they are talking about. I actually went over and picked up my GE600 and tried to check out the things they mentioned, like the case creaking and the hinges bending the case are and all of that. The weak access panels. I honestly have no clue what they mean.

Now, I'm not going to risk my GE600 just to prove a point, but I pressed reasonably hard on the bottom of the case and it felt plenty firm to me. I did not see any flexing or giving. It is plastic, so I'm sure if you press hard enough it will eventually give. But who in the hell would press that hard? I did a similar check on some SONY Vaio's when I was looking (they're plastic as well) and it was the same.

I also picked up my GE600 from the front with two hands as they suggest and I noticed no flexing, and absolutely no creaking or noises of any kind. Then I thought, maybe the did it with the screen open? So I opened up the display and picked it up again. Nothing. It's a 16" wide screen unit, so I'm sure if I twisted hard enough I might see some give, but forgive me for not being stupid enough to try that. Really, it feels fairly solid and substantial to me. As good as my $3000 vintage laptop of 10 years ago. No. As good as most of the other laptops out there today in this price range. Absolutely.

I really have no idea what they're going on about. (Note that they have a different model than the US model I have and I did note a few differences, e,g, theirs has a slower HDD, but the pictures appear to show the same case as far as I can tell.)

Maybe I got lucky or maybe they're off-base. I don't know. I know one other review mentioned a slight, but not objectionable, bit of flex if you held the 600 by the corners and exerted pressure. I have not noticed it myself. But then again, I handle my notebook with care as most would and don't go around trying to fold it in half.

I'd certainly be careful with this as I would any gear, but I would not hesitate to throw this in a messenger bad or any normal laptop case and haul it around. It's *not* a metal chassis business class laptop. It's a budget consumer entertainment/gaming laptop.

Honestly, the quality of the case design was actually better than I expected. I'm quite satisfied with it. I think the review was way off base on that aspect.

I also don't see any issues with the keyboard. It's not even close to the best, but it's perfectly fine and actually the key size and layout is pretty darn good. Better than many.

The important thing in the review as far as I am concerned is their comments on the ATI 5730 and its surprisingly good performance. I knew this before I bought, it's exactly what made me choose the GE600 -- a switchable gfx setup built around a 5730? Sweet!!!

I bought a Toshiba a few years back with 1440x900 and and an nvidia 8700M for similar reasons, a budget card with good performance well matched with a modest rez screen = good gaming! I save about $600 and on 90% of all games never see any difference in performance (90 fps vs 150? Who cares?).

Any card that can run games like Crysis, etc. in medium settings fluidly is fine with me. And the 5730 can even do high settings at 31 fps, cut back a few settings and you'll be fine probably. And the ATI 5730's performance will only improve as better drivers come out in time, so it truly hits the sweet spot in my opinion.

I'm glad the review confirmed that it out performs the 330M as some questioned my claims that it would elsewhere. I actually think it deserves a higher ranking than it has when used with 1366x768 rez. A lot of comparison benchmarks are run at a higher rez and the performance of the 5730 will "roll off" as the rez increases. To my mind, running benchmarks with each laptop running its native rez is a far better comparison. Hard to find though.

So overall the review does draw the right conclusion -- that the GE600 is a great performing gaming rig at a good price and a great value.

 

P.S. I also find this to be a very quiet rig which was a big point with me. I hate noisy laptops. Yes, the fan will spin up under load, but it's a whoosh that is not objectionable at all and as the review noted, this unit runs very cool considering all the power under the hood.

I'm actually liking mine more, the more I use it. That's a good sign! I'm fairly picky about my gear (but not unreasonably so, I don't compare a $900 unit to a $2000 one and complain, for example).

If you ignore the case stuff, it's actually a fairly positive review. And they're just off base on the case.

Hey, you other GE600 owners, do you see any case problems with your units?

 

Why you need to be careful reading Benchmark charts, this from a review on notebookcheck of a different laptop using the ATI 5730:

Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
med. high ultra
54.8 30.9 8.5 fps

Wow, that ultra rating sucks, right? But look at the real facts, ultra was run at a much higher resolution:

Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Resolution Settings Value
1920x1080 Very High, 0xAA, 0xAF 8.5 fps
1024x768 High 30.9 fps
1024x768 Medium, 0xAA, 0xAF 54.8 fps

Wow, ultra at 1080p rez -- no wonder!

But note the pretty good performance on Crysis a notoriously hard game on gfx cards as far as performance (fps). 55 fps at medium and 31 fps at high settings -- that's not bad!

 

The problem was the performance of the components, to which I cannot comment. But the case is the same as the ex625, which is the one I have I use and I like.

The problems are all there, all of them. The bottom of the case, you know the big panel? Yeah flimsy plastic. If I hold it using both my hands at the extremities we have a flex at the center.

The keyboard flex is noticeable, as well as the quality of it, ok I might be spoiled on that one, since I used previously for 3 years a lenovo.

The screen has more viewing angles and has more vivacity than my older laptop a 2006 mate screen ccfl. And yes the panel still is the same.

The battery life impressed me, You guys have more battery life than the earlier model. But beware of that battery, mine I have to replace now, it is more than 60% degraded, and as such I have a flimsy battery life of 1 hour. And yes it is the same model.

The point is you can't make anything with that price and with that guts, without making compromises. And those compromises goes from build quality.

I actually never met anyone who had a slight knowledge in tech that cared about the rating system of a review. I only cared about what it mattered, the info on it.

Notebookcheck survives on the info sent by users, if you disagree with the grades on your GPU just send them the specs and provide with the links.

The grades on the 5830 are actually lower than they should be

 

I can see a little flex in the large plastic panel (removable) on the bottom if I press. But, not enough to hurt anything that I can see. Mine will be setting in place most of the time anyway. I just worry that some will read too much into it and be put off. A shame, 'cause this is a nice product.

The keyboard is middling, but good enough. The screen looks great for desktop and games, but it's only acceptable for video (IMHO) - but I'm fairly picky about that.

I agree with you, there have to be compromises to deliver this performance at such a good price. I think they made reasonable choices.

I also agree on the ratings. I could care less, I read for the info as you say and make up my own mind. I've never been too swayed by ratings.

I also agree on the 5730, I think it tends to be underrated. As long as it's matched with the right rez screen, I think it's a "sleeper" that will surprise most lucky enough to get one.

Certainly, having a 5730 in a switchable gfx system at this price is pretty sweet!