MSI GS30 Revealed

You buy it as an ultrabook/notebook to begin with, so don't consider anything else for the start-up. That's your initial cost and can be your last if there's no plan to upgrade.
Then you eventually find that you want extra horsepower on the gaming side, then you invest more dollars into the "graphics upgrade".
But if there's never any need, then you can pretty much use it as an ultrabook. It works just as good as any ultrabook out there, plus more.

 

Great idea, but I don't think its the most subtle implementation :hi2:

 

It's an idea that no one knows what will happen to the sales number.

 

It looks like a nice little machine by itself I agree, good screen, I can only image MSI using a nice keyboard.

On the go even the most modern titles should work at the 1:2 scale 1280x720 resolution.

 

Good video showing some more detail.

 

I really dig the idea. It would fit perfectly with some friends and even partially me. I am looking forward to the full product showcase and reviews

 

Is there any updates on this other than those teaser hands on videos on youtube?
When will this monster be released?
I hope this can steal the limelight now on the recent GTX 980M/970M releases.

Shuts up and preps money...

 

A docking station is a great idea and I'm very sold on that
But why on earth msi is making the dock so HUGE
Looks like it only supports a single card
For such a purpose built device it is totally possible to pack a powerful dual/triple slot graphics card with sufficient cooling and power in very small form factor
Unless there are other features in that dock like multiple hdd expansion, then it is reasonable

btw, the host of this video is TERRIBLE. It's shocking that a tech channel host knows so little about technology

 

Looks like Alienware has joined the external video card train. Their dock is also proprietary to their systems:

Alienware's got a massive $300 dock for your new graphics card

Sounded like it is relatively hassle-free to use too

Alienware 13 Review: The First Futureproof Gaming Laptop

Will be interested to see if other manufacturers jump on board.

 

Alienware's solution looks so much better. The laptop is still usable while "docked".

MSI did say the design wasn't final so hopefully they improve the design.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

The different implementations are interesting, but I don't think the MSI will do it like the Alienware model. It's mostly because of the way they're doing the dock. If it was connected by a cable it probably would, but being physically placed into the dock like this implies external monitor needed.

I think MSI are going for a portable desktop which can be expanded with graphics at home, whereas the Alienware is going with a portable gaming laptop that can be boosted with graphics.

 

I am late but here's some great news!
擁有獨立顯示卡外接盒，MSI GS30 2M Shadow 與 GamingDock 亮相 - VR-Zone 中文版

Such epic hardware that can kill the Alienware 13!

 

Anyone speak French? I want this thing.

 

Anybody else getting amped for the GS30? This most definitely will be at CES and I am getting excited to use one. I could really care less about the gaming dock, but I will use it maybe lol. I will love to be able to travel with a quality lil notebook that I could use easily on an airplane

 

Thanks! finally we got to see what's on the inside!

Literally me here! MSI SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY DAMN! this stuff is such a tease!
This will be a direct competition to that undepowered alienware 13!

 

And another video guys!
Here;


Article is here;
MSI GS30 Shadow and GamingDock Preview | KitGuru

Ooooo weeee I want to buy this thing already!!!

 

How it looks like from the inside!






So now we got mini speakers and an HDD, can't beat that!

 

Wait... Only Iris Pro graphics? :|
What's the price tag about? I'm not bringing a dock around if I wanted to game on the go.

 

Choice is up to you buddy, this will work for me as an office guy, I will be bringing the laptop everyday with me and game at home or LAN parties, no need to carry ton weighing desktop PCs around.

No need for me to build an unjustified PC that STICKS at home, I can take the Laptop with me at trips and leasure time without leaving my files behind.

 

You got a lot of difference options for current GTX 970s 980Ms in the market now, this thing caters to a different crowd who likes gaming too...
You got ASUS, AUROS, MSI, SAGER CLEVO for your purpose which to me is sick (big bulky laptops costing $4K for a GTX 980M SLIs)

 

That actually makes sense
I guess there is a purpose to this.

 

My sarcasm meter broke on that buddy

 

I love the specs on this 13" laptop! Looking for 13/14" monster ultrabooks for office work and some EvE online gaming at home. This really gets my attention after getting disappointed by the Alienware 13 witch has in my idea a better concept and better build, but a really really disappointing i5U CPU that is a total deal breaker for me and I think the most of us.


Points that have my attention now are:
1- Does it has a good (photoshop friendly) screen?
2- Is putting the laptop in sleep mode enough to connect/disconnect from dock? (I alway's have 100.000 pages open, would be a big issue for me to close and reopen all documents everyday!)
3- Does it get the new Broadwell CPU?
4- will it have the fancy rainbow color keyboard?
5- Dock design going to change? (Sorry to ay this, but I find the dock looking really really ugly! I might even go so far to build my own custom slim housing and put the whole hardware in my own build dock! The housing has no clean shapes, is bulky while having a lot of unused space inside it, the horrible ugly side ends that is has making it impossible to place it other then with the long side as the front. The laptop sticking out on the front hovering in med air, but most of all... the handle!... the handle itself is already... i dunno... But they even did not give it a shape or finish! Just a plain cheep looking bar with a cylinder on it where you can see the plastic mold lines even without glasses >.< ... ok sorry about that.. needed to be taken care off.) Of course functionality is more important then aesthetics, so if it is all functioning very well I will accept that there was less budget on making the dock look awesome.

So will be following this with GREAT interest.

 

What is an addon here? A docking GPU station to a laptop or a docking CPU station to a PC?

What a fail.

 

Storage/cpu/memory with portable screen and keyboard. No need to sync your data, it's all there and the gs30 is a potent little device on the go.

 

I think it's meant for a different part of niche market, because it is intended for users that don't need powerhouse out there with ultra portability, because you can't do much with battery anyway.
Then when you get home, you get all of the power you can have.

 

A high quality screen with powerful screen mean that regular tasks will fly by, even things like video editing will go by quickly.

its designed to go out and work hard, get lot of the dirty work done and then dock back in and touch up that work on a large display and or play hard.

 

When all they will finally understand. All that most notebookowners want is just a SMALL BOX with 1 GPU with 1 cable (TB2) compatible with all manufacturer line (MSI gaming laptops) with audio port and possibly 1-2 small GPU connectors without all that oldish crap parallel-port-looking and VGA.

If you give us a big case with a price like a PC then why wouldn't we buy a PC? Only minority will buy it.

 

There is currently no proper standard so no one port for everyone.

 

You are right that GS30 is meant for minority market (high-performance ultrabook segment), if you simply look at the original intention of GS30, we don't need to bother to look at the docking station for now.
GS30 in itself is already a very nice ultrabook since other ultrabooks don't, and this is a plus for GS30.
Also, since Iris Pro can handle many titles at reasonable settings so it's pretty good as iGPU.
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Finally, it does not take away the opportunity for users to obtain more performance if the user decides to get more later on, but it is not going to be a dead end without an option.
If marketed correctly and priced reasonably, GS30 can be an excellent product.

 

whatever you guys are saying, I will definitely consider buying this
here's my shot -
"Think outside the box"
-that box (eGPU enclosure)

 

As far as I see my comparison list, this GS30 IS a powerhouse compare to other ultrabooks. It is the only one so far that does not has a low voltage i7-xxxxU dualcore but a i7-xxxxHQ quardcore. So it is actually a powerhouse since this is the same cpu that 15" and 17" laptops use. It is only not that powerfull in gaming performance... atleast.. not when your at work (like me) or at school. But when you get home you have a full gaming rig available. For me this is exactly what I want.

Then about the pc replacement thing... I can really see a use for people that don't want to spent 1000 euro for a laptop and an other 1000 for a gaming pc. If this thing is not gonna cost to much I would expect that you pay 1200 for a powerfull laptop, 300 for docking station and lets say 300 for graphics card.

+ cheaper
+ Less space consuming
+ Upgradable graphics card (CPU should be enough for the comming years)
+ Alway's the same OS / Data with you

- No heavy gaming on the go. (No problem for work and stuff, but a bit sad when you go to a friends place to game)
- Laptop can not be used as additional screen/desktop (I use my laptop often beside my already 3 screens to set up a stream or google.)

For me personally it is a great solution. I'm kinda living in 2 places at the moment (by my parents and by a friend) and I have only 1 game pc. So a GPU rig at my friends place is a great solution for me,heavy gaming at 2 places, while still heaving a 13" cpu performance monster for my work.

 

I am eager to have something almost as powerful as my GT60 in a 13" size so I can travel with it a lot easier. It would make using it on an airplane pretty doable and I can't really do that with a 15.6" now. The dock is something I can take or leave but the option of having it is going to be real nice when I am going between two houses.

 

Precisely said sir cat!

I definitely agree on what you wrote, this should be how people view this product today and in the future, this is best thing that came for portable computers!
This is an underrated revolution overshadowed by tech snubs/snobs and naysayers!

 

*Mhewww*

=^.^=

 

Found some more interesting information that I thought I would share with others.

Just when I thought I would go with the MSI GS60 I found out that the GS60 has a rather old cpu that does not support vPro.

The MSI GS60 uses a i7-4710HQ
The MSI GS30 uses a i7-4870HQ
See THIS for comparison.

I don't expect a lot of people here to find this a problem... but I'm going to use XenClient for running multiple OS installations on 1 laptop push and pull those OSes to and from a vmserver host somewhere in the cloud. I checked XenClient, and it really uses the Intel vPro features for example supporting GPU hardware virtualization in a vm.

So one big plus for the awesome CPU the MSI GS30 has..

I also saw that the GS70 also uses the i7-4710HQ.

 

The big reason is that while away from the dock the GS30 has no access to a dedicate GPU so having the strongest integrated GPU lets you still do as much as possible, gaming at 720p should be doable while keeping the device thin and portable. You do also get a few side benefits.

 

I'm also very interested in the battery live... This should be a fair bit longer without in absence of a dedicated GPU.

Also some internal pictures of the GS30 and a nice review done by Zardon (thanks!):



See full review HERE!
Note that he is saying you can't game on it while not docket.. I'm not really with him on this... since you can do games on it as long as you don't try to run ultra high settings with ultimate high-end games like he is trying in his test. For the rest good review in my opinion.

btw. The i7-4870HQ this GS30 has, has a Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, not a 6200 like I saw someone mention before. But as i can find so far the 6200 only has a few more shading units, and makes not a big difference compare to the 5200.

 

Just found this posted from today 12/7

Hands-on with MSI's GS30 2M Shadow Notebook and Gaming Dock - HardwareZone.com.sg

It even includes a couple benchmarks.

 

There is something pleasing about the layout of the motherboard of the GS30 itself, I do like it.

 

That is quite a nice small profile notebook. They even crammed up two m.2 slots, not bad.

I like the heatpipe design, and overall the look of the notebook. Looking forward to the final product.

 

Not sure if it's been answered yet, but will they sell the GS30 without the dock? Seems like a good ultraportable I could possibly replace my Thinkpad x220 with. I have a GT70 and 2 gaming desktops already, so no real need for the dock.

 

I believe they are separate for those who would just like the GS30 since as you say it's a perfectly valid system in its own right with a powerful CPU.

 

Yes, and a pretty powerful integrated graphics in such form factor.

 

It should be sold without any docking station initially, then if demand is good then they will probably do bundle afterward.

 

I will put this here =] Just in time for the holidays! ill share a few more in the near future

 

Another one because im feeling good! Hard to see how thin it is, but very thin and light! perfect for those who want a good quality laptop on the go.

 

Ok, I am drooling now.... I can't wait to get my hands on one, it looks so tiny

 

Thanks MSI Geno!

Hope to get answers on all the questions... but I guess we need to wait till it is released.
Looking forward to see the final specs and when it will be available. Kinda excited about this Alienware 13 / MSI GS30 race.

 

Well lookie those...
I hope the docking station will cost less than the AW Graphics Amplifier. Performance should be better on this thing too, seeing as the CPU will be less of a bottleneck than it is on the AW 13 (i5 4210U? Really Dell?).