MSI GX640-098US Review

Min's MSI GX640-098US Review​

This is my very first review, so please bear with me I am open to any suggestions and comments on how to make this review better.

The MSI GX640-098US 15.4" notebook is a notebook released in early April 2010, targeted at semi-mobile multimedia users and gamers. Featuring an HD Mobility 5850 GDDR5 video card, it is capable of flawlessly handling the vast majority of past and current games with no problems whatsoever. As well, the HD 5000 series has been enhanced to support a wide selection of features ranging from hardware based HD flash video acceleration to the new ATI Eyefinity functionality. In addition, it is rather unique for such a high powered notebook - the weight comes in at a mere 5.9lb with a 9-cell battery, placing it in the lighter group even among its mainstream 15.4" notebook peers.

Table of Contents

• Specifications
• Reasons for and Details of Purchasing
• First Impression
• Build and Design
• Screen and Speakers
• Keyboard and Touchpad
• Ports and Features
• Performance and Benchmarks
• Heat and Noise
• Conclusion
• Pros and Cons

Specifications


CPU: Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 430M
Speed: 2.26~2.53 GHz 32nm, 35W
Cache: 3 MB

OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 bit

LCD
Size: 15.4"
Backlight: WSXGA+ / Glossy Type
Resolution: 1680x1050 16:10

CHIPSET: Intel PM55 Express chipset

GRAPHICS
GPU: ATI HD 5850 1GB GDDR5, DirectX 11
Video: Memory 1GB GDDR5

AUDIO
Audio: HD Audio by Realtek
Speaker: Internal Speaker x 2

SYSTEM MEMORY: DDR3 1066 4GB

HDD
HDD Capacity: 500GB 7200 rpm
HDD Interface: 2.5" SATA

OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo

COMMUNICATION
LAN 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
WLAN Built-in 802.11a/g/n WLAN Card
Bluetooth Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR

Keyboard: 103 keys with NumberPad

SUPPLEMENTAL DRIVE: Card Reader 4 in 1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/XD)

Webcam: 2.0 MP Webcam

I/O PORT
USB2.0 X 2 (plus one e-SATA / USB2.0 combo port)
VGA (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1
Mic-in X 1, Line-in X 1, Headphone X 1
E-SATA+USB 2.0 Combo port X1
Express card / 34

AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 120W/Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal

BATTERY
Battery Pack 9 cells, 85Whr

PHYSICAL SPEC
Dimension: 14.1 (L) x 10.24” (W) x 1.22 (H)
Weight: 5.94 lbs (9 cell)

WARRANTY
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 Year Limited Warranty (include 1 Year Global Warranty)


Reasons for and Details of Purchasing

Having used a 15.4" ASUS G1S since 2007, I have decided to look for a lighter, yet more powerful notebook computer. As such, much of this review will be comparing the ASUS G1S with the MSI GX640-098US.
Among the candidates were the ASUS N82Jv, Asus N61JQ, Asus G51Jx, Asus X83Vp, HP Envy 15 (2nd Generation) and many other portable multimedia/gaming notebooks. However, after considering the price / performance ratio, I came to the conclusion that the MSI GX640-098US is by far the best bang for the buck notebook available in Canada.

The notebook was purchased from NCIX, who priced it at $1189. After price-matching PC Canada for $1160 (NCIX insisted that PC Canada charges 2% on top of their stated $1139 price), the total came to $1260 after overnight shipping, insurance, and taxes.

The notebook arrived two days after I ordered it, apparently because NCIX didn't ship it out until the day after ordering

First Impressions

The notebook box was securely wrapped in crumpled packing paper encased in a much larger cardboard box, thanks to NCIX. After unwrapping the layers, I came upon the attractive looking MSI G-series box.



Included in the box was the MSI GX640-098US notebook, a 120W power adapter, 9 cell notebook battery, short users manual, and the MSI drivers DVD.

After unboxing the notebook, I came upon the sleek gadget that is to be my main computer for the upcoming years. Its lightness and small size for a 15.4" notebook immediately struck me, a sense perhaps amplified by the fact that I came from using the rather oversized ASUS G1S notebook. Below are some pictures for you to enjoy; more shall be coming after I finish this review.

Top


GX640-098US on top of ASUS G1S

From this picture, it is immediately evident that the MSI GX640-098US is indeed much smaller than the G1S

Keyboard


In person, I find the red trim to be actually more attractive than I thought it would be, although this may be subjective. From the back of the notebook, it is difficult to tell that this notebook would be targeted toward gamers, something ASUS and Alienware/Dell have not achieved. The sleek, brushed aluminum back gives the notebook a rather classy look.

Opening the notebook, I find that the red lines serve to compliment the otherwise dark gray / black chassis quite well, giving it a lively and energetic feel that may be otherwise missing. The touch sensitive buttons at the top of the keyboard as well as the power button are illuminated by blue LEDs. Some may find the power button to be slightly too bright in a dark room, especially when watching movies or playing games.


Build and Design

Chassis

As far as I know, the GX640-098US shares the same chassis with many other MSI notebooks, including the popular GT 627. The notebook seems to be quite well constructed. The brushed aluminum back gives the lid an unyielding form, as I am unable to produce any screen ripping regardless of the amount of force I apply with my finger.

The hinges are very stable. When moving the table on which the notebook is sitting, the screen does not wobble. The notebook employs a magnetic latch to keep the screen shut. The magnetism seems to be a bit stronger than average.

Inside the notebook, the palm rest feels equally solid, being made of the same material as the lid. The area above the keyboard is plastic. The silver parts consist of a kind of grated metal sheet, perhaps to assist with ventilation. The two speakers are located at the top left and top right corners under the grated metal sheet. Pressing on the grated metal sheet on top of the speakers does reveal a bit of weakness, but does not seem to be anything unexpected.

I had been worried that the sides of the notebook may be weakened by the fact that the keyboard runs almost edge to edge (being a 15.4" notebook with a numberpad), but I can now rest assured that this is definitely not the case.

In comparison, the bottom of the notebook does not feel as solid. As can be seen in the following picture, there is a very large pannel underneath the notebook that covers the entire heatsink assembly as well as the memory and wifi chips. This pannel feels less solid than the rest of the notebook, but is not something I am overly concerned about. I like the convenience of being able to clean out the heatsinks and fan just by removing one pannel, as opposed to the complete disassembly required by many other notebooks.

Bottom of notebook
<PICTURE COMING SOON>

Surfaces

As mentioned, the entire lid, as well as the palm rest is covered by dark gray brushed aluminum. The rest of the surfaces are plastic, with the exception of the silver metal grating above the keyboard.

I am happy to say that the notebook does not feel cheap anywhere, with the exception of the slightly less solid bottom pannel. It is unfortunate, however, that the brushed aluminum surfaces have such affinities for fingerprints (or is it the other way around?) that, in order for it to have a pristine look, you may find yourself wiping the surfaces incessantly. It is even more troublesome that the fingerprints do not come off just by lightly wiping it with a microfibre cloth as it would if the surface was simply glossy plastic. I find that some moisture is required to bring back the flawless shine.

Screen and Speakers

Screen

Despite the lack of an LED backlighting, the screen on this notebook is definitely not a low performer. Placing it side by side with the Asus G1S and turning the brightness to maximum, I made the following observations.

The maximum brightness of the MSI GX640-098US is higher than that of the ASUS G1S. However, compared to other modern laptops with LED backlights, I find that the maximum brightness is about average, and definitely not the brightest I've seen.

The whites on the MSI GX640-098US is much truer whites than on the G1S, where the whites give off a slightly yellow tint, as can be seen below:


I find that the colors on the MSI GX640-098US is much more vibrant and saturated than those on the G1S. While it does not compare with the LED backlit 23" ASUS MS238H monitor that I have it hooked up to now, I find that viewing pictures and playing games on it to be a pleasurable experience.


The blacks are truly black on this notebook. I find that the light leakage is minimal, whereas on many LED backlit notebooks the blacks simply look like darker shades of gray. While the G1S screen leaks a considerable amount of light at the bottom of the screen, I have observed no such thing from the MSI GX640-098US.

Viewing Angles

The horizontal viewing angles on this notebook exceeds that on my G1S, as can be seen below.


Also, the vertical viewing angle from below seems superior.



Unfortunately, it appears to me that the viewing angle from above is not as good as that of the G1S. Keep in mind that my camera is not the greatest either, but you can use it as some sort of reference.


Speakers

The speakers have been able to astound me with their quality. They are located at the top left and top right corners of the notebook. While lacking significant bass (although some is certainly present!), the speakers are very clear and loud. At even half volume, the speakers have no problem filling a medium sized room with music. Even at maximum volume, little distortion can be detected. Compared with all other laptops I have owned or used, these speakers are by far the best.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Allow me to be blunt here: this is the area of the notebook that I find needs improvement.

Keyboard

In order to fit a number pad onto the keyboard of a 15.4" notebook, MSI has had to shrink the backspace, enter, and the right shift keys. For some, this may take a while to get used to. As well, the Fn and Ctrl keys are swapped. While I have already gotten used to this, there will be many that will lament MSI's choice.

The right side as well as the top of the keyboard seems fairly solid, giving good tactile feedback. However, the bottom left area of the keyboard suffers fairly significant flexing. Allow me to define that area by using the following vertices:

Top left: Q, Bottom left: left Ctrl, Bottom right: right Ctrl, Top right: L

This trapezoidal shape approximately outlines the area of flex.

The space bar suffers the most flex, unfortunately. Pressing down on it with moderate strength causes the entire bottom of the keyboard to go down also.

I am looking to apply the keyboard flex fix for the GT 627, which owners have given high praise for: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=359411
This review will be updated once I have applied this fix.

Touchpad

The touchpad is about average size, and very responsive. The surface is a kind of find matte plastic, giving good travel at the fingertips without any drag due to moisture buildup.

The touchpad buttons are extensions of the brushed aluminum chassis. As a result, they do not feel fragile or cheap at all. On the down side, pressing the buttons causes a very audible click - much more so than on the G1S, which more or less has the same type of buttons. This is somewhat compensated by the fact that tapping on the touchpad works very well, so that at least the left mouse button doesn't have to be used too much


Ports and Features

Ports

The MSI GX640-098 has a good selection of ports (please refer to the specifications section). So far, I have not had any issues with any of the 3 USB ports and audio ports that I have used. Bear in mind that the USB ports are all USB 2.0, so that the new USB 3.0 technology is unfortunately not included. To compensate, one of the USB 2.0 port is a USB 2.0 / e-SATA combo port. According to MSI, this port offers users the option of connecting a single cable from an external portable hard drive to the combo port. Both data and power will be delivered: power is delivered over the USB interface, whereas data is delivered over the e-SATA interface. This should offer speeds that compare favorably with USB 3.0 according to other reviews.

The HDMI port is able to carry both audio and video over the digital interface.





Wireless

The built-in wireless chip is an Intel 5100 wireless a/g/n card. I find that the card is very responsive, and can maintain a stable connection with my router. As this is a standard chip, I will not go into great detail about it.

Webcam

<this section will be added later>

Performance and Benchmarks

The MSI GX640-098US is a blazing fast performer with its i5-430M processor, DDR3 memory, 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, and lastly, but most definitely not least, the HD Mobility 5850 GDDR5 that is the highlight of this item.

Unfortunately, other than 3DMark06, I do not have any other benchmarks. I'd like to ask our forum members that also have the GX640-098US to kindly provide me with some 3DMark Vantage scores and PCMark scores so that I can reference them in my review.

Game Benchmarks

<Coming soon>

3DMark Scores

All benchmarks are ALWAYS at STOCK frequencies.

3DMark06:
At 1280x1024:
SM2.0: 4963
SM3.0: 5665
CPU: 2629
Total: 11520

Unigine:



CPU Benchmarks


Heat and Noise

Heat - chassis

When benchmarking, playing games, or doing software installations, the notebook's keyboard becomes lukewarm, but not hot by any measure. The right palm rest does become warm, but not unbearably so. I suspect the warmth may be due to the fact that the surface is aluminum, which conducts much more heat than the plastic surface of the keyboard.

The underside of the notebook somehow manages to stay cool to the touch, regardless of the computer's task. This should alleviate potential users' concern that it may burn their lap. However, I would not suggest users to game on their lap - it IS a 15.4" notebook with an HD Mobility 5850, and as such, it requires continuous airflow. Blocking the air intakes with your lap is not a good idea. It also follows that the notebook should definitely not be left on your bed, or any soft surface for use. I often see people putting their notebook on such surfaces as the sofa, the bed, or even the soft inside surface of their notebook carry case. While this may not be much of a problem with mainstream, lower powered notebooks, it would certainly suffocate this powerful machine.

Heat - GPU
The following are the maximum GPU temperatures as reported by the AMD GPU Clock Tool when running various games and tests:

3DMark06: 80C
Unigine: 82C

Modern Warfare 2: 84C

IDLE (Windows High Performance Mode): 59C

Heat - CPU

<Coming Soon>

Noise - Fan

The fan of the notebook seems to always be on, even when idle. When spinning at low speeds, the fans are not very loud. However, they are certainly audible at higher speeds. The sound of air rushing out is not high pitched, much to my relief. I would not hesitate to bring this with me to a quiet library.

The air rushing out of the heat vent on the right side, is, as expected, quite warm. Some users may find their mouse hand (if right handed) to become quite sweaty, if placed near the vent.

Noise - Optical Drive

The optical drive runs quite silently, compared to many other notebook optical drives I have used.

Battery Life

It seems that the battery life came out to be around 2.5 hours with screen set to maximum brightness, MSI Eco active on battery mode, and wifi on. This number is as estimated by Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

The battery does stick out the back, as it is a rather large 9 cell battery.




The power adapter, is, unfortunately, big and heavy. It is capable of supplying 19V and 6.32A, giving it a power of 120W. It is pictured below beside a portable 2.5" external hard drive:



Conclusion

The MSI GX640-098US has not disappointed me. At the price point of $1160, I sincerely doubt that I could find anything on the Canadian market that would prove superior to it. The earlier concerns about fragile chassis, bad screen quality, and overheating seem to be unfounded.

The HD Mobility 5850 delivers graphics performance that would put many gaming desktops to shame. That a slim 5.9lb notebook manages to pack the power of 8lb+ behemoths strikes me as a noteworthy engineering feat.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this notebook to tech-savvy users. The user should know to clean out the fans and heatsink, and not leave the notebook on surfaces that block the air intakes.

But above all: the user should not react to the notion of "HD Mobility 5850" with a "huh?"

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Blazing fast graphics performance
• Vivid and high resolution screen
• Slim and light chassis
• Very low price point for what it packs
• Good ports selection
• Keeps relatively cool

Cons

• Keyboard has some flexing issues (fixable with the double sided tape method)
• No USB 3.0
• Fan may be a bit noisy for some
• Red trimming may be too flamboyant for some
• Battery life is not the best

 

Thanks ! very good review !
Could you please take a picture of the keyboard ? It is the only thing that makes me hesitate to buy this MSI.

And can we switch between the 5850 and the i5 IGP ?

 

Really nice review, thank you very much!!

I im just waiting for the battery life before buying it. I hope at least 3hrs while surfing/office.

 

With a PM55 chipset, this won't happen.

I'm still a little worried about the lower performance others have gotten with 3DMark Vantage at stock clocks, which seems to go away with even a slight overclock. If a 1Mhz overclock, or even an underclock would fix it, it's not really a serious problem, but I'd like to know what the cause is.

 

Mm ya, I gotta go buy some groceries, eat dinner, etc so hehe this will be completed soon. I am after all a young boy of 20 that has to look after himself now, right

 

hey is it 64bit or 32bit

 

The OP stated that it came with 7 home premium 64.

 

Great review!

Would be very interesting to see some BFBC2 benchmarks.

 

Great review !
I'm guessing you've set the resolution to 1680x1050 on your MSI, but what is the res of the ASUS ? Is it Full HD ? Because everything looks very small on it.
That's not the case of the GX640, however.

 

Eh, they're at the same resolution. On the MSI the DPI setting is changed to lower (by me)

 

So what's your overall consensus on heat management? If the GPU reached about 80 degrees celsius when gaming, do you notice it starts to lag or anything?

 

Thanks guys for making me almost cheat on my gf with this wonder, the GX.

I really want one, and the only thing holding me back is my wallet. Other thing holding me back is that I dont know which reseller is best for US purchase. Xotic offers it for 1151.39 total using paypal. That might be the best. I really wanna know if Justin was lying/mistaken when he told me that opening the unit voids the warranty (meaning they can't upgrade thermal paste, and I can't open it to clean dust or upgrade RAM). If anyone can confirm this for me over the weekend, then I'll get ready to buy. Otherwise, I'm gonna call xoticpc again to doublecheck.

 

I would buy but the heat means dead computer in 6 months

 

LOL that's a weird thing
I find the windows taskbar on the ASUS to be smaller than the GX's one

Anyway, I've placed my purchase (NCIX) and I'm really waiting for this bad boy to be on my desk !

 

Really? Where did you get that statistic from? Experience? Speculation? Groundless comments are very misleading to less experienced readers.

The chips are designed to handle north of 100C. My roommate's 8600M GT is still alive after two years of 100C under load. 80-85, while on the warmer side, is perfectly fine. ATI cards don't even throttle down until something like 100.


My overall opinion, given the comparable 15"s like the G51, is that this notebook manages to dissipate heat very well already. Keep in mind that I have the base processor, which of course lowers the total heat output to the single heatsink assembly.

 

Eagerly awaiting battery life test.

Primarily, screen dimmed, wifi...basically stuff you'd be doing when not plugged in.

3+ hours please .

 

Thanks for the great review. MSI should really be paying you for this

Still curious about the battery life, which is what is holding me back.

 

yea but the heat on this beats an envy and thats smaller and a all metal case I was really hope ing to get this too
also OP why did you get this over the envy, cause the envy was about the same price and came with a 5830

 

The cheap Envy is not available in Canada. The first generation starts at $2199 here with our dollar on par with USD.
Also, the 5830 GDDR3 is not comparable with the 5850 GDDR5

 

And that's a huge reason for us Canadians to bypass the envy. Since we can't even customize it, so we're stuck with the $2k pricetag.

 

Could you run heaven benchmark at 1400X900 with 2Xaa and 4Xaf?

 

Hi, how did u get the final price to be 1260 from 1160? that's 8%! (even cheaper than just taxes for me 12%) which part of Canada are you from?

 

Yeah. I ordered the Envy with the $450 here in the States. If I had to pay full retail...NO WAY is that machine worth it.

 

wow ok just wanted opioions cause people tell me the envy is a better machine cause its priced higher and built better, but I like the 3 year warranty on the msi that says something about a company, I have till tommrow to deside, if I want to cancel the envy man this is a tough desion.

 

This is not the place to post wether to get the ENVY or MSI.
Great review min2209
Can you run the Crysis benchmark?
Would love to see what FPS it gets.

 

Hi guys,
thanks for all your comments.

To mew and IKAS, I will run those benchmarks as soon as possible. Tonight, though, I'd like to play some games with my buddies, and go to sleep. The review will be completed tomorrow.

Thanks all

 

Great !
Will be looking forward to it bro!
Game on

 

Great! Thanks a lot!

I'll probably buy it if there's nothing better on the canadian market when I come back from Turkey/Greece in June... =)

 

OP, dont forget to run a benchmark AND a demo of Starcraft 2 for me on ULTRA everything

Let us know how it goes bud.

Thx again

 

Can the OP comment on the weight? It's 5.9 lbs with the 9 cell. What would the weight be with a 6 cell? I'm always on the lookout for a light GPU powerful laptop.

 

Well I'm guessing the OP won't know considering a 9-cell is the only retail option. If you went out and bought a 6-cell I'd say maybe low to mid 5s? 5.9 with a 9-cell is a pretty light weight on what this machine packs.

 

Does the 9 cell stick out the back or is it flush?

 

it sticks out.

 

OP can you add more photos, and beat Tree_Burner to a demo/benchmark of SC2 on ultra for me? Thankssssss

 

You need to calm down about SC2, it will run fine.

 

Some pictures have been added.

 

Great pictures.

Btw, can you add pics of the bottom (underside), the backside, and of the aluminum exterior (the Screen and more close-ups of the palmwrests?

Do you use a point n shoot or a cellphone camera? Some are really clear and some are fuzzywuzzy

Oh and one more request if you havent gotten to it yet : SC2 on ultra!! woohoo

 

that's a fairly beefy battery pack. It's unfortunate it only lasts 2.5 hours on a full charge. I'd guess with the brightness to low, it should get about 3 hours...

I have a question regarding these touch sensitive buttons. Do the eco and cinema pro buttons actually do much?

On MSI's global website it says cinema pro makes the screen more richer???

 

You've now asked about starcraft at least three times in multiple threads. Please chill out - and honestly, whether it gets 50 fps or 60fps how exactly is that going to buying decision? This is probably the fastest 15'' inch laptop available at the moment and there will always be something better a few months down the road.

 

Sounds good then. Then definitely GX is for me.

 

Hey dookie,
sorry I don't actually have SC2. I'll add the undersides picture shortly.

I've been using a point and shoot, Samsung NV3. It's kind of dark in my house right now, and I didn't want to use flash because that gives too much glare. Usually the exposure time is something like 1/10s, so that's pretty slow.

Anyway, the 5850 runs Crysis on all high settings and 1680x1050, and all max settings at 1280x800 flawlessly. I don't think SC2 will be much more demanding than that.

The Eco button does both power control (battery saving modes, etc), as well as entertainment modes where I guess they play with the screen. Whether they do much or not, I'm not sure. I don't use these screen modification tools anyway.

 

hey op are u happy with the msi also any major problems noticed and does it run cool, also can u put it on your lap without it being hot. also is it preety tiny in size compared to a envy.

 

what's the size and weight of the power brick? could you also upload a picture or two of the brick with the gx640? and how does it compare to the stock adapter of the G1S?

also in the "specification" section you listed the power brick as 90w, but in the "first impressions" as 120w

 

I don't consider battery life as a con if it lasts 2,5 hours with maximal luminosity... this is unseen for a gaming laptop for what I know (any G serie asus would barely reach 2 hours with min luminosity).

 

That's okay. If you do have the time though, could you share any videos you might have of your gaming adventures?

 

Ya I get what you mean, I only though that since the battery is a nine cell, it would be a bit longer. Overall, 2.5 hours is still good enough, and I'm pretty sure with the brightness down a bit, it should reach 3 hours.

 

also min how bad is the keyboard flex and the bottom plastic, it sounds like this comp is cheeply made.

 

You can fix the keyboard flex with some double sided tape.
The OP has a link to it.
Looks very easy to fix if it's bothersome.

 

Actually I looked around at RK Computers and if you look at this model
"MSI MS-1656-ID1 (GX640)" you can configure it with a 6 cell battery. The 6-cell I think would be flush with the system.

 

Well that's the barebones which isn't out yet. The OP doesn't have one so would not be able to answer your questions. According to RK:
"5.80 lbs ( Full System With 6 Cell Battery )" There you go then.