MSI gx660r-060 is what we've been waiting for

Finally got my RMA # for my MSI. I've decided to stay away from the GX660R. Its a dope lappy but not for me. Honestly the audio was the only reason I liked it. Other than that its not worth $2000 to me. I just ordered the Sager NP7280. Now thats a dope laptop. mmmm cant wait for that bad boy. Thanks for all your guys help and suport with the GX660R.

 

Got mine on order today Should have it by Thursday at the latest, hopefully fully functional

 

Welcome! I realized that we are so very few owners of the GX660R haha. It feels kind of lonely here in the boards

Test everything out to ensure you got a fully functional machine! I really love mine heh. It's funny how much distrust ATi has, specially with the issues of the Asus.

Well, let us know how it all goes and if anything happens we will be glad to help.

 

Forge, that makes perfect sense. I understand how partitions work, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that the drives that were "combined" through Raid 0 might be partitioned as well.

I'd say the files on the second partition numbered about 25 and seemed like program and installation files. I couldn't determine what program they were associated with by looking through them, except that Microsoft had their fingerprints on most of them. I pay a lot of attention when installing programs, to make sure everything goes where I want it - and my D: drive has remained untouched. I decided to bundle the files into a folder to see if any problems occur, so we'll see how that goes.

On another note - we all know how nice these internal speakers are, but has anyone else hooked the laptop up to a stereo or speaker system? I can't believe how amazing the sound card is on this thing! They make my old stereo speakers sound like new life was breathed into them. The clarity, detail, and richness are amazing. I highly recommend anyone treating themselves to a surround speaker system, I can only imagine what that would sound like .

 

Thanks for the welcoming How would you go about testing everything. Obviously the biggest indicator would probably be game FPS right? But I suppose that doesnt go into too much detail.

 

Test your games and use some benchmarks. You have to check that your computer is stable without crashing. Signs of bad GPUs come in the forms of a black/white stripped screen after using a GPU intensive game on stock clocks. You should be fine if you can play all your games etc.

 

There might be a further benefit, as well, though I'm inexperienced with RAID. In fact, the GX660R is the first machine, period, in which I've used RAID. And I only kept RAID for all of ten days.

But anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with shortstroking a HDD, meaning you make a smallish partition--say 100GB--and install Win7 and some of your favorite programs on that partition. While in that partition, programs will fragment less--they can only fragment in that 100GB partition--and you'll get a minor boost in performance.

I wonder if RAIDed HDDs can be shortstroked.

Mind throwing up a screenshot, if you're fine with that? I'm curious about these sneaky programs.

Brilliant thought: This could be a good party music machine. You get pulsing lights and great sound.

 

I'm familiar with the concept of short stroking and if I upgrade to a non-SSD, non-Raid hard drive combo, then I'll definitely be doing that!

Here's an image of all the files I was referring to:

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u106/yonegawaya/strangefiles.jpg

I'm keeping the files in a separate folder now and so far haven't experienced any problems.

I just had an interesting experience with my first GPU overclocking attempt. You'll probably laugh at me for my noobish attempt lol. I got MSI Afterburner like you suggested. I decided to try raising the Core Clock and Memory Clock all the way (by dragging the sliders). As soon as I hit apply, I got a series of thin, vertical gray stripes across my screen. Is that expected based on my noobish attempt to overclock or am I looking at a serious issue with the GPU? I don't have many games and the games I've tried (without overclocking) appear to be running just fine at the highest settings (Counter Strike: Source and Portal).

So Forge, if I eventually grab an 80 GB SSD, do you think it would be roomy enough for Windows 7, the Adobe Master Collection, some music production programs, and a few others random programs? Just curious if that would be enough space for me to optimize performance.

Also - any advice for how to properly test my machine to make sure everything works properly? It seems to run fine, with the exception of the msi LED Manager issue - but that'll get fixed once I get around to a clean install.

Thanks man! I'd be lost without you guys with this machine lol.

 

Just be careful with overclocking! It should be done with small increments and testing each time. For example, going up 10hz memory at a time, then test with games and benchmarks until unstable. You went full ahead to max memory and became completely unstable and crashed (the black/white stripped screen). So far, Forge and I haven't been able to get stable memory of 1050 at all. Hell, even at 1040 I had one crash with League of Legends.

Basically, go little by little until you find your overclock ceiling and stick there.

My current "best" overclock is 860/1030 so far. Funny enough, MSI afterburner won't let me increase core clocks further.

 

Those look like garbage/leftover files from some redistributable, probably DirectX. Toss them out. they all seem to have to do with an install of some kind, and since you're already installed, they can go.

What did you clock to? It seems, universally, that the 5870s in the GX660R can't get above 1050 memory or so. I know Ry and myself haven't been able to.

If I remember correctly, I had Win7, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premier, MS Office, the StarCraft 2 beta, another game (I think it was some Command & Conquer game), and about 4 GB of music and other personal files. I still had over 100GB free on my 160GB SSD (When formatted it was, like 155GB free)

Games, of course, and benchmarks like Unigine or 3DMark Vantage. You can try Furmark to stress your GPU and Intel Burn Test to stress your CPU. OCCT also has separate CPU and GPU tests.

This might be helpful.

 

Thanks, Ryzeki! That helps a lot, I'll be sure to give that a shot. I'm bookmarking this page . I had a feeling I was being reckless and stupid, but oh well lol.

On another note, and this is for everyone: I found a simple program that will turn off your laptop screen but simply opening it's .exe file. Pressing any button or moving your mouse will immediately bring the screen back. I wanted to be able to turn the screen off while listening to music when going to bed, so this was perfect for me. Furthermore, I programmed the P1 key to trigger the program, so now all I have to do is press P1 to immediately turn off the monitor XD. Here's the link for the free download:

Turn off laptop display and enhance battery life

 

Was it you who found out a program to rebind keys? I forgot which thread it was on.


By the way, check the previous page. I think you posted right after I did and bumped my post back, haha.

 

Yeah, I found that program - it's called KeyTweak and it's been a lifesaver for graphic design .

I need to go crash since I have school in the AM, but I'll reply more adequately tomorrow afternoon. G'night!

 

OK so it is maybe a month late and probably answered in the buncha pages I haven't read yet, but I just got this laptop and was having a similar issue with the BT not working. I got it to work by going to the 'My Bluetooth Settings' under the bluetooth device area and I had to select a check box to make the laptop discoverable by other BT devices then it worked!

hope this helped and sorry if it has been said already!

 

The issues with the screen concern me, as I would like to use this laptop for photo editing as well. Not at a professional level but I would still like it to be decent. Would you consider using it for this purpose or I should I look elsewhere?

 

Yeah, we are only a few and we now will be one more less. I have to send mine back because its has a pixel error just in the middle of the screen. My supplier cant get a replacement, so I have to get my money back and wait for it to be in stock again. It will be no sooner than middle of october. But I'm sure I will go for at 660 again, I think its well build, nice graphic card and an amazing sound. I have had no problem with crasch, BSOD or anything, it just runs perfectly. I also am pleased with its USB 3, expresscard and E-sata, because I need it to be future proof. There has been a lot talking about the bad screeen, but I think it is an ok screen. But good luck with you few with this amazing computer, I'll soon be one of you again.

 

So I just received my GX660r yesterday and I am hearing clicking noises from the right and left side of the machine. My limited knowledge of computers points to a failing HDDs. I called MSI and they did not bother to trouble shoot it and simply said to return it to where I got it from.

I am going to return it either way, but was curious if anyone here had any ideas as to what could be causing them?

 

Hard drives, fans, and optical drives are the only moving parts in a computer, so those are really the only 3 options for what could be causing the noise.

Are you sure it's on both sides? It can seem like it is on both sides, when in reality, it is only coming from 1 source but sounds the same when you put your ear next to both sides.

 

I am sure it is both sides. While I am sitting at the machine I will clearly hear a click from the right side, followed by a click from the left side. It is random so I have never listened for it with my ear next to the machine.

 

The noise might be perfectly fine. The hard drive in my Asus UL30VT clicks a lot. If I remember correctly, either it's the hard drive parking the head when it's not being used in order to prevent damage in the event of a fall, or it's a power-saving feature of the hard drive. I do know that the clicking I'm getting is perfectly fine, though.

I personally wouldn't RMA the laptop until someone else who actually has the laptop comments about whether theirs ever clicks.

 

Fair enough. I just find it odd that the manufacturer (MSI) told me to return the machine and the vendor (XoticPC) agreed with their assessment without having me try anything to fix it (and if it was supposed to click, why not say so?)

 

Can you be more specific as to the locations? The left palmrest is where one HDD is, and the second is in the upper right.

I do have the occasional clicks from my Samsung MP4, which is in the upper right slot. It's 100% healthy according to SMART and HDTune error scans.

 

The clicks are coming from the left palm rest and the upper right.

 

Then it sounds like your HDDs, then. It's normal, especially since I noticed the same thing back when I had a standalone WDBEKT3200, which is the model of HDD MSI used.

 

Can anyone tell me what is on the recovery partition of their main HD. I deleted mine when i first got the laptop removing raid and im just curious as to whats on it. Thanks

 

Yeah, I think you're right about the files. I've kept them in an isolated folder and I've experienced no system or software issues at all. I'll probably toss them in a week.

I overclocked to the highest setting on the core and memory meters lol. I know, it was noobish and dumb. I'm nervous about overclocking now since I've heard it can cause hardware issues. I really need to keep this laptop purring since I'm in the middle of a school semester. So is that true - can I damage the GPU or anything by overclocking it? On another note, is it possible that, if I have any unknown issues with my GPU, that I won't know about them unless I overclock? In other words, is it advised that I overclock to ensure I received a stable unit? I downloaded all the programs you recommended so I can give them a shot once I'm sure I want to proceed with testing.

I'm tempted to download the newest 10.9 ATI Driver and Catalyst, and get the Hydravision for additional monitor control as well. Has anyone else upgraded to this driver and maintained stability? I don't want to take any unnecessary risks right now, so I'm being overly cautious.

 

It's not technically true that overclocking will break something. Yes, it can cause damage, but that's almost always because of heat. Once more for emphasis: heat. Since the GX660R has such a competent cooling system, you can maintain a high overclock while still staying cool in your temperatures.

The reason why n00b overclockers break things is because they'll overclock all to hell and have their GPU--or whatever component--get ridiculously hot. They'll be all "lololol IB got 150% on my shader!" while the computer is going "lolololol yourz GPU is now 100C". The lesson of this is to overclock safely. Monitor your temperatures during games. The handy program MSI Afterburner has an on-screen display that can be configured to show your GPU temperature as you game.

As for stability, technically your computer is only guaranteedto run at stock clocks. If you can run games all day long at 700/100 (stock) but get [insert color here]SODs at 710/1100, there's they can technically do fo your. On that note, most GPUs that I'm seeing can hit a +10% overclock easily. Just remember all GPUs are not created equal.

Lastly, I had to clean install Win7 again ($#!^* OCZ Vertex), so I ended up DLing 10.9. I'll see how it goes.


On a side note, laughed at "You... hit it. You... tapped that . Presumably, it was phat." God Bless The Dresden Files.

 

The ati 5850 has the same gpu die as yours.

YouTube - BF:BC2 MAXED-OUT all the settings - MSI GX640

Overclocked at 815/1075
(Stock is 625/1000)

-Fraps show the fps in the top left
-Settings are in the first 10secs of the video
-Temps are at the end, after 3hrs of play

I think this video might make everyone want to overclock?
Learn form your mistakes, dont give up!

 

guys this machine come with i7 740qm, is it wortht to upgrade it to 940xm? i will be doing lots of zipping/unzipping and files combination for videos.

will the improvement be big from the above 2 processor? hdd changed to ssd and rams maxed out at 12gb 1333mhz.

or should i just go with desktop for this kind of work?

 

I think upgrading to the 940 is a waste of money unless you're making 6 figures a year and just want boasting rights . Getting the SSD will help your boot processes and application load time much faster and will probably speed up the zipping process for files stored on the SSD. 12gb is probably overkill unless you plan on running multiple operating systems through virtual systems. The i7 740qm has been super fast for me and muscles quickly through the most intense processes in my graphic design programs. I haven't come close to using the 6gb of ram that I have so far. The only limitation I feel is the regular hd. I'd love an SSD!

 

Hands down an SSD or RAID SSD is worth the money more than the i7-940xm. Lets not forget, with Sandy Bridge around the corner in a few months resellers will be looking to get rid of their remaining i7-Core processors. Already the "outdated" i7-920xm is selling relatively cheap if you can find places to get it.

(of course, I would never suggest voiding the warranty by replacing the CPU yourself! Tisk! Bad people.)

Instead of putting the money into the CPU, put it into SSDs. Much quicker read/write and response times that you will actually notice.

 

what i wrote in my question, i meant that if the machine already have ssd and 12gb ram on it, will the better cpu make it faster doing the jobs im doing? ssd i will mostly use it for the bootup and main programs, but for encoding and zipping will still be done via the 500gb hdd.

 

So Forge, how's the new ATI Catalyst driver working out for you?

By the way, I managed to overclock to 830/1035 with relative stability while playing CS:S. When I pushed it to 842, it would run a little while and then lock up, even when I pumped the memory down to 1020. I guess I'm not quite overclocking as much as you and Ryzeki, but close enough since I didn't mod my system out. Since CS:S runs beautifully on standard settings, I'll probably just keep using those.

Does anyone know if there's a way to get multi-touch gesture functions out of this Synapse touchpad? I read that this version doesn't have a driver available for multi-touch, but I wondered if anyone figured out a way around it. I'm disappointed that such a new machine at this cost doesn't have and up-to-date touchpad. Oh well, it has a lot of other things I like

 

On another note, I noticed that my speakers have a slightly rattle or mild distortion at moderate-to-high volumes now. I guess I hurt them when I turned the volume all the way up a couple times. Normally I'd treat speakers more gingerly, but according to the reviews I'd read, as well as the video posted by either Xoticpc or Gentech, the speakers would be able to handle max volume. I'm pretty annoyed by the slight rattling sound, I wonder if there's a way they could be replaced. : /

 

Hi Childofsaturnmusic,

I have heard that the touchpad is multi capable - but yes cannot seem to see a driver for it. Hopefully something will be out soon....

Cheers
Chumby

 

With a six figure a year salary, why the hell would you buy a MSI in the first place?

 

Because they're awesome!

 

I also have a small distortion with high volume, but it depends on what I am listening to. Rather high quality music/video rarely makes the rattle distortion sound, however on low quality sound it is more noticieable.

Maybe it can be exchanged, I don't know, I don't even have time to RMA it, so i will probably stick with it as is. It works great anyways. Specially in games.

I haven't had time to look for any multi touch gesture fuctions but if someone finds out one driver, let us know

As for overclock, you are similar to my numbers. My best is 860/1030 and that seems stable. It sucks that we can't raise memory beyond such levels, because it would greatly help with our 1920x1080 res. Games perform perfectly anyways, and I am already running quite OCd so I can't complain hehe.

 

I'm not sure about 10.9. I seem to be getting FPS drops in Killig Floor when there's a lot of particles (smoke, fire) being tossed around. I'll have to double check to be sure, though, since I recently clean-installed and I don't know what settings I might have changed.

 

Yeah I get that too.
Game has issue with ATI cards.

 

The thing is, I didn't notice the the issue to the same degree with 10.8.

But, again, more testing awaits.

 

I'm still using the GX740 drivers from MSi website
I think 10.3 or 10.5

 

I haven't played it much with CAT 10.8 but I use the following settings, and I get between 60 and 300fps. Yes, 300 fps.

 

What's your name in Steam? Add me
Steam Community :: ID :: Bearclaw

 

A budget brand is a budget brand. It's like buying a Hyundai vs. a BMW. Hyundai's got nice prices and great features, but the BMW will always be a cut above. Both are still great cars/laptops, but when you got the dough, you'd probably go with the more established brand.

 

Ry, no slowdowns when there's fire or smoke?

 

If you are talking about the MSI vs alienware, I would actually go with the MSI...

Reasons
1) USB 3.0
2)Better Sound
3) Better cooling (I think??)
4)Not as flashy
5)much lighter
6)Less bulky
7)Cheaper
8)arguably better customer service if purchased through a reseller like xoticpc or gentech pc, however RMA and repairs through MSI suck I've heard
9)More customization options through a reseller
10) Better gpu than the m15x (I know u can oc thte 5850 to 5870 but still.....)
11)the touchpad with usefull stuff like a turbo OC, and max fan button
12)Not sure if alienware has, but you can open it up without any void warranty stickers....
13)2 hard drives, which is huge for me as I have the ssd, hdd combo for my gx660r

I actually could have spent around 2200-2400 (alienware price with the customization I have on my gx660r), but I preferred the MSI over the alienware

 

Spock --"The cadet's logic is sound"

 

Weird problem when playing games it only happens once in a while:

1. Starcraft II: game will stop responding for about 20 Sec then bring up a blue screen and then continue on like there was no problem.
2. Dragon Age Origins: There is two little blue marks one on the both sides of the screen kind of the shape of an arrow but not really at first I though it was a couple dead pixels but it only happens in this game does not affect gameplay but it is annoying. These blue things are not seen when running Dragon Age Awakenings.
3. World of Warcraft: again the game will stop responding will either blue screen or black screen then continue on with no issues.

I have done a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate and am currently using Catalyst 10.8. I have not overclocked at all.

Any Suggestions?

Specs: Core i7 940, Stock Ram Config 6GB, two 500Gb Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drives in Raid 0, ATI 5870, and Blu-Ray Burner

 

I believe there are 2 hard drives in this laptop.

May I please ask if the bios has a feature that allows you to choose which hard drive to boot the os from ?



like in the ability to choose the device boot order ?