MSI MS-1651 Montevina BTO Notebook Barebone

So only the WSXGA+ screens are being held up? I thought that both were. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Correct.

However the first WXGA shipment fell short of filling all of the pre-orders, but a much larger shipment will be arriving next week.

 

Huh, could you post here once the WSXGA screens are available? That's when I'll be placing my order.

 

How early did people have to order to make it into the first shipment?

 

**** it!! I got the high res version.. So what dates did you get donald for an ETA for that one

 

I received an e-mail with an ETA on or before Sep 15 for the pre-orders.

 

i just feel that this laptop will break on me in 1-2 years it looks like my old laptop and kinda feel that the plastic will break with some crack line on the surface

 

So you already have it and it feels like cheap plastic?

 

He doesn't have it, he's not sure which one to buy yet.

 

Ohhh alright. Don't scare me!

It looks okay to me... and resellers have said it is very solid.

 

It got stolen. Someone broke into my car and nabbed my IFL90 while I was moving. I really loved that laptop!

 

Unfortunately, I don't own a digital camera right now since that was taken as well. Anyway, I ordered from Paladin (Powernotebooks.com) back a few weeks ago, right after my Compal was stolen. I think the 15:3 had just been listed that day.

Well it's here...arrived at my department's office late this afternoon! I am currently in the process of installing XP and Ubuntu right now. The bad thing is that I'm unbelievably tired but I hope to play with it a bit before I pass out. So far so good!

Uhm, like I said, I guess I am the guinea pig so ask away.

 

@ v1k1ng1001,

How does the keyboard on the laptop feel? Is the numpad good?

The wifi? How is the build quality of the laptop, does it feel cheap or well built?

 

My first impression is that my Compal IFL90 is/was more solid than the MS-1651. Of course it was also a heck of a lot heavier. The MS-1651's lid is solid enough though...better than most laptops I've seen. It is jut tough to beat the build quality of the Compal I think.

The MS-1651 has this huge vent on the side. I'd like to fire up TF2 and see how it compares to my Compal IFL90 which would sometimes become very hot while gaming and the GPU would drop the framerates to compensate.

 

The keyboard/pad has some give to it, about the same as the Compal. Again, I am probably spoiled because my old Gateway 7405GX has a fantastic keyboard. The touchpad is very cool.

 

Let us know when you get a game fired up or do some heavy tasking, so we can get a feel for how it performs. Let us know of any performance issues (including potential hardware problems) when you get the chance.

Thanks for providing those who are waiting for their 1651's to come in with some early information.

 

If you have time... a review or a first impression on everything

this will be my biggest investment for a laptop..

 

Do you have a HDTV? I'd love to see how this thing looks when ran through an HDMI cable.

 

Viking, if you have time (and the desire), run a benchmark like 3dMark06 and give us your specs so that we can have some numbers to mull over while we're waiting for another 3 weeks on ours with the WSXGA screens. Thanks.

 

Sorry to hear that. How much did you pay for your laptop?

 

Got any more information that you can give us today, viking?

 

let him sleep or work alright

 

and if possible, could we please have some hwmonitor temps (idle/web browsing and after gaming)

 

Anything? Has anyone else received their 1651 yet?

 

My email said that they would recieve them by the 15th at the latest and shipping would then begin on Tuesday the 23rd at the latest.

 

what happend to viking

 

Oh, I'm having problems installing the XP drivers for VGA, wireless and bluetooth. I sent an email to tech support and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

In Ubuntu everything is functioning except sound (to be expected) and wireless (it finds the intel card but no drivers are available). The wireless has me a bit worried because normally Ubuntu installs the Intel drivers without any hassle.

The keyboard feels a little cramped but I guess that is because I've lost an inch and half from what I've been using. I'll get used to it eventually. The left shift button is kind of a pain in the butt but I'll eventually catch on to that as well.

So far, so good. I just need to hear back from PNB about the drivers situation because the cd they sent me isn't working for the aforementioned devices. After that I can fire it up and provide more feedback.

 

Oh man that sucks about the ubuntu wireless. One of the things I wanted to do with the laptop was use ubuntu... Please post any updates you have with it, and how you get it to work

 

All Of the XP drivers are not on the msi CD, they would have to be supplied by your reseller on a separate cd. The BT driver on the cd should work, do you have the wireless/BT turned on?

Last we checked the same happened here for ubuntu, there are no drivers available for sound or wireless. Did you check the intel site to see if they yet posted the linux wireless drivers?

For the sound you may find the linux driver here:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/

EDIT: Just checked the MSI site, they posted the XP drivers. They were not up a few days ago, you can find them here:

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1529

 

To my knowledge, Intel does not officially support linux drivers for its WiFi cards, and the iwlwifi modules were reverse-engineered. I might be wrong. In any case, you may have to compile the latest unstable release of iwlwifi, which has support for iwl5000.

http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=Downloads

 

Any news from resellers?

Has anyone else received their WXGA screen 1651 yet?

Information is always welcome.

 

Thanks! That page got me up and running for the most part.

I'm loading up some TF2 right now so hopefully I can play after work tomorrow.

 

If you have time, can you let us know later how it went? How temps were? How it felt?

 

As someone who has his eye strongly on the MSI 1651 barebones, I would be very interested a few thing.

1) Build Quality
2) Noise (idle and when gaming)
3) Heat (does it get too hot?)
4) Stability (does it randomly crash, etc...)

Enjoy your purchase!

 

after some TF2, an update on how warm it runs would really be appreciated.

Enjoy your new rig

 

Was anyone else just asked to contact Xotic? I can't call them right now so I'm wondering what it's about.

 

I wasn't asked to contact ...
What/who told you to contact them

hopefully it's not another delay. If it is, I may cancel my order. It's really getting old, and extremely annoying

 

I wasn't asked to contact anyone either. What screen did you get? Maybe it has something to do with that.

 

Sorry guys, it was something to do with my specific order. Sorry to worry everyone. It's taken care of.

Back to the waiting...

 

Well, tomorrow is the 5th. We shall see...

Praying that the "estimated date" is on target. Though I'm not sure how long it will even take after that. Do the screens arrive at MSI and then ship to reseller? Or do the screens go directly to the reseller to build everything out?

Anyone have a reasonable estimate on how long things will move along if the screens do get in tomorrow?

 

Ask your reseller...they are the only ones that can tell you specifics about your order.

Reseller's can no longer make product announcements at NBR...see the new rules at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=109941

"# Not allowed to make unsolicited recommendations or post in the "What Notebook Should I Buy" section of the forum.
# Not allowed to comment on the quality / reliability of other companies or products
# May provide clarifications in the forum in response to questions asked by members.
# Are highly encouraged to help in trouble-shooting of problems
# Are forbidden from posting any links back to their respective websites for any reason.
# The posting of product images within the forum are not allowed, including both attachments and hosted images
# Product announcements are not allowed"

 

It seems that Xotic didn't charge my credit card when I originally ordered (on Aug 6th). The Canadian dollar has fallen against the US dollar since then. This is really quite irritating.

 

I wonder if this model is worth all the hassle? I'm very tempted to cancel my order as well. This is really annoying.

 

I have good things to report. I fired up TF2 and played for a few maps this afternoon. Compared to my IFL90, the 1651 runs cooler, quieter and performs much better.

 

Thats good to know. What settings were you able to play TF2 on? Thanks.

 

hey don,

quick question.

If i order this today with the WSXGA screen...

http://www.powernotebooks.com/specs/PowerPro/p15-3.php

will I have it at my doorstep before the 20th? cause thats when i'm heading back to school and i want this laptop but i can't buy it if it's not going to arrive before then.

Thank you!

 

thanks for the information

 

If we could get settings and some more information that would be great. Thanks for posting the update.

Have you been able to run any benchmark programs, 3DMark, etc? If so, could you post the results?

 

... now XoticPC's ETA says 9/10
I don't know what this means, but its not either of the dates we received in our update - 9/5 and 9/12.
Does this mean the WXGA screens will be delayed AGAIN to 9/10

 

I ordered from PNB and I emailed Donald and they plan to ship my WSXGA+ screen PowerPro P 15:3 between wednesday and friday next week. When I get the computer I will post my impressions if time permits.