MSI GS30 Revealed

@aarfy To answer your question on my profile page you need to remove the chip to reprogram it as the write protect pin is grounded on the board.

 

Hi,
Can I ask what is your throttle point and power limits right now?
"(Only flashable by physically removing the chip)" ... are you sure?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/want-your-username-changed-request-here.557393/

IIRC it's 95c now (the Intel maximum) with 67w 30 second turbo with 3.7ghz at a 52mv undervolt.

You may be able to cut the write protect pin, I can't remember from the spec sheet if leaving it floating is ok.

In other news the titan-x is dead, I have it replaced with an r9 nano, have separated the pump and reservoir and introduced RGB programmable lighting

 

Thats a very interesting change. How is the experience with the r9 Nano? Are you running the nano at stock clocks? Also, what is the cheapest that this laptop can be bought for? The only thing holding me back is only 2 usb3 ports on the laptop itself. I just feel that a thunderbolt port would have been the perfect addition to this. Can anyone give me an idea of how low this things price might go in the short term?

Its very sad that no true successor has showed up.

 

Well I bought it second hand with 1200 euros. That price included the 4K Samsung 28" display, GTX980Ti inside the dock and 3TB WD HDD also.
Since then I have bought 2 new Samsung 850 EVO 250GB m.2 SSD's, as one of the original Toshiba SSD's failed. I am also waiting faster 2133mhz Kingston memory modules 2x8GB.
Also I am planning to buy a second dock for this laptop, just incase... can have it with 70 euros only in local HW forum.
So If You find one with 600 euros, go for it but i would not pay over that.

 

You got an amazing deal. I can only buy from the US as a friend is there and will buy it and bring it back for me. Have till end of June to see how good a deal I can get on it. The promised TB3 laptops and enclosures are not working for me. The lack of bandwidth will be an issue with 4k and VR era upon us. Plus the prices of the TB3 enclosures are insane.

 

Yeah, the deal was Amazing. I first bought that entire thing to make a little profit for selling all those separetly. Reconed I make 400-500 euros extra, but decided to keep the laptop and dock
Only sold the GTX980Ti and 4K display
Loved the look and performance of the GS30 and I have got used to the small weight. I had Lenovo X230 before, which is not a heavy 12.5" laptop. But extra 400g make a difference

 

There is the modded front lighting.

@viilutaja nice deal

Clocks are still being determined but not stock for sure

 

@Meaker@Sager Do you think I'll be able to 3 way SLI 980Ti s using something like this:
http://amfeltec.com/products/flexible-x4-pci-express-4-way-splitter-gpu-oriented/

980Ti prices will fall soon.

 

I can't find any evidence in the BIOS it supports PCI-E bifurcation.

SLI requires 8x per GPU and validation too so it would have to be AMD even if it did.

 

So GTX 1080 it is!

 

Hi guys,

I have a question about the GS30 and hope you can help me.
I got this nice little machine second hand and in good condition.

Everything is working fine so far except for one annoying thing.
When I set the GS30 in Sleep Mode it goes to sleep as it should but the white light bar as an indicator won`t blink/pulse.
So it happens two times I docked/undocked the laptop without notice it was still powered on :-(.
The light bar is working while powered on and in normal us. It just don`t blink while in sleep mode.

I hope I didn`t damage anything with the dock/undock while powered on ;-( !?

Do you have any suggestion what might be the Problem? I have windows 8.1 with all drivers and BIOS/EC up to date.

Thank you and regards

 

There are issues with that white light bar. Crazy things happen to mine too I guess.

 

Yes, maybe.
I need to know if I can fix this issue myself or need to RMA my Device to MSI.

The Light bar is working in normal mode and stays on all the time.
When go to sleep there is no blink/pulse, just light bar is off.
This is a Problem since sometimes I don`t know the laptop is still powered on.

 

Hi guys , seem msi just announched the new gs32 shadow using mini gaming dock . And i though if gs30 can using mini gaming dock is more power and more convinient than gs32 right guys ??? 4870 is better than 6500u right guys ?? Can anybody confirm this ???

 

core i7 4870HQ is miles ahead of core i7 6500U in terms of performance.

 

Love the mini gaming dock but base on power choice, maybe i still buy gs30 ( . Waiting for someone confirm that gs30 shadow can deal with mini gaming dock

 

90% sure it can

 

I purchased brand new original GS30 2M Shadow dock for 40 euros- just incase

Probably will modify one of them to make more room for air intake when laptop is docked. Gets very noisy and crazy with temps.
Maybe cut away the plastic on top of the dock or even the entire roof of the dock to house a thin 15mm fan in slow rpm pushing air up.

 

And how about 10% extant =))))

 

Is there a way to turn off that stupid bright led in front?
When watching movies in the dark it really annoyes...

 

Holy! Where? How? Wherefore?

 

Disconnect the cable under the main cover to it, just between the edge and the battery.

 

Thanks!
I dont see why that light has to be there at all. Drains battery and is not even controllable or cannot change color...

 

Here are my 3DMark13 FireStrike scores with: starting with GTX980Ti (mild OC: 14735), second is GTX980Ti stock (reference cooler, 13263), third is GTX960 oc'd (2GB and reference cooler, 7173), lastly GTX670OC with oc (6988)
The CPU scores different very much... don't know why is that?
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/8078868/fs/8077674/fs/8601976/fs/8122483

When doing stock 3Dmark run with GTX960 the score and HW details are all valid, but when OC'd the HW is Unknown or Generic?

Once did an 3DMark13 FireStrike Ultra test with GTX980Ti, dont remember if it was with stock clocks or not, but score was 4533
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8080193

 

If the card is a blower in the dock it can lower temps.

 

GTX980Ti was blower, GTX670OC was Windforce 3 cooler (not great for this dock) and now sold and bought used GTX960 with blower cooler for 120 euros.
The docks included fan is noisy as hell even with set to low rpm in the switch. Will buy Zalmans Fan Mate 2 fan controller to put this behind that. Probably will modify to house a Scythes thin Slipstream 12mmx120mm fan to blow air out on top.

 

What kind of card should I get next. Nvidia 1080 FE or Strix or Gigabyte extreme for the coolest temps?

 

Guys,

What are your CPU Temps?
Mine are very bad.

I repaste and undervolt to -90mv AND underclock to 3,0Ghz but still reach critical throttling point of 86°-87°.
With all on stock within half a second I reach the 87° throttle point.
Even a Cinebench run will take my CPU to about 86° with 3.0Ghz AND undervolt of -90mv.

Is this normal or do I have just a faulty device??

I think of deactivating the turbo boost by setting CPU max to 99% in energy options.
But I'm afraid the 2.5Ghz will bottleneck my GTX 980.
Any suggestions or experiences with this?

Thanks

 

Any blower will help keep the cpu cool.

I replaced the side fan with a noctua (the grey ones), I've tidied things up a bit but this should give you an idea:

 

That is normal

 

@zane55 - Fairly normal temp. Also, high 80s Celsius should not cause throttling. Are you noticing your performance drop when you hit those temps?

 

yes the core clock rates are going down to 2.8-3.0 even with undervolt.
throttling is beginning with 87° than performance drop

 

You now see why MSI went with the core i7 6500U with the new GS32.

 

I get around 3.1-3.2 max load stable and 3.6-3.7 gaming load stable will a full suite of mods.

 

What are your gaming load average and max temps?

 

@Meaker
What is your core offset in XTU? And what vcore do you have maximum with stock offset?

My Gaming load temps are almost the same.
The Problem is just how much core speed I get until throttling on 87°.
If I run a XTU Stress test my clock goes down to 2.2Ghz than up to 2.9-3.0 and down again and so on.
If this is normal behavior on the GS30 then ok.
Btw. the Iris Pro Graphics has almost same behavior. Cant reach full turbo of 1.2Ghz. Always goes from 850mhz to 1.0ghz.

As I said I`m planning to set CPU max to 99% and 2,5Ghz (turbo off).
Do you think the CPU with 2,5Ghz is still more powerfull than the I7 6500u?
And do I get a bottleneck with GTX 980 and future stronger cards?

 

Started modifying the dock for better airflow to the CPU. Also replacing dokk default fan with 92mm Noctua fan (Noctua Fan NF-A9x14 PWM).
Bought this for CPU: http://www.amazon.com/Scythe-Slip-Stream-SY1212SL12M-120mm/dp/B009TTD4B0

"Road so far":

Here I cut the first plate of the dock (seiling) and modified littlebit the fan itself.


Idea is to cut fan mounting "ears".











From next picture beneath the plate, you can see that only one slider is missing its socket. So the top plate can easily be moved back and fort.


Now I have to start modifying the top plate.


There is so little room on top of the videocard. So the fan has maybe few mm of clearance to draw air from back side of the card and push it towards the bottom of the laptop.


Last cutout should come along the red lines like in the picture.
Hopefully it gives the laptop its lockpoint and wont slide off from PCI-e connector.



Sorry for the messy cutting marks... bought a dremmel for this job- lets just add it to the cost
And first time using dremmel...
Dermmel - 70 euros.
Scythe fan- 10 euros
Noctua fan (ordered)- 18 euros.
Time spent so far: ~3h or so

 

Had to use different cutout with top plate... the top edge was interfiering with fan (still to thick).


When trying to undock the laptop, then the plate would get stuck behind the top edge of the fan and would not open all the way.
So i cut away the top edge of docking plate.


Dock plate open.


Also drilled 2 fan screw holes.




Hours so far... 4h.

 

The above is the XTU stress test (with max and min highlighted). Below is a period of 45 minutes running doom 4 with the minimum highlighted.



Here is the CPU test in 3dmark, starts at 3.7ghz and finishes around 3.5ghz

 

Can the laptop support 5 monitors on Nvidia cards? 4 on GPU and 1 on laptop HDMI. Also if 5 monitors work, does the laptop display work too? Can anyone check this for me?

 

Just like a desktop they are Independent so you can add together the max of the dedicated and notebook.

For some AMD cards that's more than 5 + internal.

 

Some weird thing is happening on my CPU physix test in 3dmark. Those two spikes are on CPU test and Combined test. No thermal throttling at all, but Power Limit Throttling??

 

I already have 4 monitors lol(3 1440p surround and 1 G sync 1440p 144hz IPS). Thinking of getting a TV.

 

My dock mod finished up with Noctua 92mm fan + Zalman Fan Mate 2 controller for controlling those 2 fans (Scythe & Noctua).


It helped tremendously in Physics test.
Old best vs new best FireStrike score.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/8649703/fs/8841077

But still pwer limit kicks in and lowers my CPU speed to 2,9Ghz....
Altough it doesn't kick in so agressivly as before. Only at the end of physics test the FPS goes down to 23-25fps, most of the time it stays near 29-32fps.

 

You can get 67W with the modded bios set to increase the power for 30 seconds, it will clamp to 47W after that.

 

Can anyone confirm gs30 with gtx1080 benchmark ???

 

That's a curious combination.

 

Tried it. Error 43 so far. Recognises the card, doesn't do much more. May be a dodgey 1080 though (MSI gtx 1080 gaming X in original gs30 dock).

 

I believe you've already seen this post by now, but @seamon posted his mileage using a GS30 + GTX 1080 in the dock in the GS32 thread here. This is what he said: