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

Great I am interested again...I am waiting for Dell to release another 15% of on the outlet Precision M6500. I will give it a few weeks then see how the reviews are for the MSI. Have not even thought about an Asus with all the issues they have had.

My only real concern re the MSI is the Service.......

 

Every 4-5 years when I go to buy a new laptop, its like going back to school learning about all the new technology etc.

So I am thinking about ordering an MSI GX660R soon. I am now debating what hard drive to get. My current Dell Xps 1710 takes forever to load so the idea of an SSD makes me drool even though the price makes me queasy.

Given that, I am thinking of either the Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid or the Crucial C300 128GB SSD. As I'm just getting myself educated on current technology I had a question about the MSI after reading some reviews on SSD's that talk about having a "SATA 6Gbp/s motherboard" to take advantage of the SSD. Anyone know if the MSI has a SATA 6Gbp/s motherboard? This is a new area for me. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I am also trying to get up to speed on how SSDs or the hybrids would be impacted by Raid 0 configuration. ANy help pointing me in the right direction there would also be appreciated.

Edit - i think I answered some of the above question which is the MSI has a PM55 chipset which is a 3Gbp/s motherboard.

Also just found this link which I need to go through but sounds like the Crucial SSD may not be the way to go given this chipset...

 

here have the review Seagate Momentus XT 500GB ST95005620AS Review - Overclockers Club

looks cool!

BR

 

just dropping in to say i am loving this laptop, its giving me around 60fps on high settings for everything i threw at it.

 

Another question:
Does this model have media controls in the keyboard? (sound, next, back, play/pause, etc.)

 

Welcome to the club, haha.

I know the GX660R only has a SATA-II/3Gbps connection. However, most SSDs now--a notable exception being SSDs like the Corsair C300--are still limited to the SATA-II speed. The C300 is future-proofing, so you can remove it and put it into a machine with SATA-III, but as of right now you won't reap full benefits.

I think some tests show that the C300 might be a little faster than, say, Sandforce or Marvell, but the people you should ask are Phil or Tiller or Les.

As far as I can tell, SSD drivers--Intel IRST drivers--are not able to run TRIM on RAIDed SSDs, meaning that eventually down the road the SSDs will begin to lose performance. Hybrid drives should benefit from RAID. There's a user, Tanware, who did some XTs in RAID. PM him.

 

Thanks forge. i wonder what would work better - Raided hybrids or an SSD/HDD combo (although with the controversy around Pm55 chipsets and SSDs I am leaning toward the hybrids).

 

PM55 is a clean chipset.

all will depends on the RAID controler used on the motherboard.

And for actual notebooks, the sata is the only way to plug a HDD or SSD or ODD.

I never see ate less a SCSI in an actual laptop.

what do you talk about the SATA II and SSD problens and were do you found this informations ?

BR

 

Mine just arrived. First thing I'm doing isn't plugging it in and turning it on... I'm opening up to see what's under the hood.

EDIT: Well. first off, I can tell you it's incredibly annoying to remove and replace the bottom access panel.

 

How so? Do you have to tap your head and rub your tummy at the same time? ^^

 

Not as annoying as the G53 would have been, for sure.
So what's the initial reaction to it?
I'm going home soon and doing the same thing!
It's still waiting for me on my doorstep....lol

 

I was wondering, once ATI release their 6xxx Southern island chipset, will we be able to swap our 5870m out or will this be on a new MXM type slot/card?

 

I don't know much about any of this as I am learning about it for this first time so there is a chance I misinterpreted this thread here - that was the source of my concern.

 

Anyway, took a look under the hood. The GPU heatink and CPU heatsink are nominally indepedent units, meaning you don't have to remove one to get to the other. You do have to remove the fan, but that's a piece of cake.

The HDDs are held in place by a combination of a bracket, a single screw, and these cute little rubber blocks.

Opened up the heatsinks and applied MX-3 to the GPu and CPU die. I also placed BergQuist 1mm pads on the capacitors or whatever by the CPU. They were a little thick, so my CPU contact might not be optimal. As of typing this message, my CPU cores are 53/49/53/51. When playing some Youtube they went to something like high 50s, low 60s I've never used a quad i7 before, so I don't know how "normal" this temperature is. GPU is at 47, with a high of 51 and a low of 45.

It's a quiet computer.

Speakers rock.

I need a disassembly guide. I want to install this aftermarket Intel 6200, but I can't find it. Haha.

I'm also planning on being as light as I can on my HDD usage, since I have an SSD coming next Friday.

Heh. Actually, two main reasons. First, it's just... finicky to remove. There are tabs all over the place and you have to place them just right or the entire panel gets thrown out of position. Takes a while to get all the tabs nailed down.

Secondly the panel feels epically flimsy. Seriously. It's wobbly and thin. The G51 access panel is definitely tougher than this.

Well. That means it'll be easier to drill.

 

Hey Forge time for sig change , good luck with your MSI, seems your having a blast.

 

I still have my G51 lying around. Once I've burned in this laptop to make sure there's nothing defective then I'll change my sig.

Hmm. CPU cores are at high 60s reinstalling my Steam games. Normal? Sorry, I'm new to the whole i7 gig.

EDIT: It seems this machine gets loud when I'm at those temperatures. Hmm. I'll crack open the CPU heatsink later and see if my pasting was bad.

 

Well i know this absolutely pointless but..... for those that want to know

 

Thanks for the link, I will read it.

@IKAS, what is the brand of your SSD ?

Good result your score.

BR

 

Intel 160 GB

 

Which model did you get IKAS V? noticed the 4GB of Ram and 1366X768.

 

It only has 4gb ram?

 

So who's gona do the first OCCT PSU test or IBT+Furmark .

 

First impressions:
I don't know what this laptop was next to when it was shipped but when I opened the MSI package It smelled of strawberry air freshener....strange.
On to the laptop...lol
Pretty lite even with the battery in, looks much better in person than in pictures, when the lighting is enabled it's barely noticeable unless I look for it.
Very quiet when web surfing, did try the TURBO fan feature and it gets pretty loud but not annoyingly loud, you can tell the fan is pushing out a lot of air.
1366x768 looks great so far but I still have the screen wrapped in the plastic cover( in my excitement to turn it on I just left it on) I will go more in depth on the screen later.
Keyboard is very nice with no flex, touchpad is a little wonky but I think I just have to adjust it, nothing major but half the time I need to put just a little more pressure than normal.
Very happy so far and extremely impressed about everything, very well put together.
Will report back later once I add my programs and whatever else I need.
EDIT:
I have the GX660 and yes only with 4GB's of RAM that I added from another laptop(CRUCIAL 1333) basically that's all I need to get it running like I want...for now, I can easily add more if I feel the need to later.

 

the 060 model has a Full HD screen and 6GB of Ram, so he got a different model. I was just curious which he got. Still his impressions will give us good information on all models.

 

thanks
===

 

Get me a link to these programs and I'll see what I can do..

 

very cool first impressions

Congratulations!

BR

 

Yeah those temps are normal for Core i7. They were the same with my G51J. I imagine it's due to the form factor and cooling solution for the CPU?

anyways, as I type this, Im at 55C doing nothing but internet browsing the forum

 

Strawberry air freshener -> nice added feature, could use some of that around here lol.

Can't wait to hear more, will probably pull the trigger this weekend.

 

Yeah Ry, I'm at about 52-ish doing nothing but browsing. Passive-only, too. The Zalman isn't coming back until I figured out what temperatures this bad boy spits out.

And, of course, I'm hoping Ken can get soem spare parts for me. This access panel is about to be victimized by a drill. And no, that's not a Freudian slip.


Oh, and I figured out where the wifi card was. It's under the control bar, where all the hotkeys are. +1 to Ken for sending me a rather cute picture on how to get to the wifi card. I'm rocking a 6200, bay-beeeee.

 

Can you tell us what screen model you have for the 720p LCD?

 

Furmark 1.8.2 - Stability, Log GPU temp, Xtreme Burning mode, Post FX proc, your native res (if not available just chose custom and type it). MSAA None. Let the test run until the graph reaches the end if temps seems good, and screen shot it, if temps go to high stop it, and if you can run it with and without the turbo fan mode.
IntelBurnTest - Stress lvl maximum, threads auto, Times to run 10 or enough to see the cpu stabilize in temps.
Or
OCCT (soviets favorite), - I prefer the two above, but it has comparable tests, the PSU test is one of the most demanding out there. its kinda like running both of the above together.

 

so this model that i know of, has 2 different config.

mainly on the screen and the hdd.

lower res screen has 2x500gb raid 0, while the higher res screen only has 320gbx2 raid o. im particularly interested with the higher res screen, since hdd can easily be changed.

those who have the machine already, does the upgrading of the processor, ram and the gpu will be as hard as asus g73 series, where you have to open almost the whole unit to access it under the keyboard?

 

After an hour of Crysis Warhead DX10. 1080p, everything set to high except very high objects and textures.

Ambient started out at 74F and dropped to 73F by the end. Everything was stock clocks. CPU and GPU pasted with MX-3. Passive cooling with Xpad.

 

any word on a barebones model of this new chassis out there?

Forge, nice temps. Doesn't look they really improved the cooling on the CPU compared to the GX640 (not that it really needed to be improved). GPU temps are a lot lower though. You should check highest reading on GPU-Z.

 

forge, questions from me.

did you upgrade the processor to 820qm? since the pasted picture showing that.

wow the ventilation of the machine pretty darn good, my 8690 lowest it could go only 62 when idle, while gaming it could go as high as 92degree.

does gx660r support auto downclock on the gpu?

 

Woah, that's weird. No, it's bone stock with i7-740qm. DXDiag shows i7-740qm. It could be because the 740qm performs at about the level of the i7-820qm. Or something. Dunno.

The GPU-Z picture (current temperaure) was taken about... four or five minutes as I shut down Crysis. the GPU cools damned fast. CPU, not so much, but there's not much to be done without hardware mods, I think.

 

The info we have is no barebone is going to be available based on this chassis design.

 

Ok ran fur mark and it topped out at 84c and then settled into 82c without the Turbo fan on.
I think I captured a screenshot but I can't find it any ideas were it might be so I can post it.

 

Seems to be the case, but here in NYC a well known non-custom retailer has or is shipping it with NVidia's GTX285M. I'm really hoping it's a typo on their website, that way I can just waltz on down and maybe pick it up locally. But only if it comes with the HD5870M.

I say "maybe" cause I would have to fork over taxes; an amount that would add one or two minor things in a custom order online + shipping. But then again, I would get it the same day (if in stock at their location). Also, if there's the need for a return or an exchange, they've never given me a problem returning anything.

I am glad we are starting to hear more and more from those that just received it. There's a video on Youtube of some guy blasting the sound on it, sounds really impressive! Mind you, the video was recorded on a smartphone and it still sound awesome.

 

Windows XP, after Print screen is keyed, open Paint and paste it on the white canvas. Save as and done.

Windows 7, after you Snipped it, it should appear in your pictures folder.

 

Hmm, now I have to figure out what HDD to pair up with my SSD once it arrives on Friday. I saw a Samsung Spinpoint on Newegg that's 640GB @ 7200rpm. That could work for me. I want a large capacity drive but with some speed to it. Isn't Seagate doing a 750GB/7200rpm drive?

And then I have to finalize the deal between me and a relative for my G51vx without the SSD. Also have to figure out how to do vBIOS modding and flashing for an ATI card.

Such an exciting week. Haha.

I was looking for this post. Where exactly is this option? Can't seem to find it. Do you mean brightness?

 

For ABULA and everyone else per request
Furmark and IntelBurn Test benches, so far so good didnt run the whole furmark test because it didnt move at all once the fans ramped up a bit, fan noise was only slightly louder.
Forgot to add benches were done at stock fan settings

 

That's pretty damned good on the CPU. I hit 83 just playing Crysis.

Argh.

 

I used ICD7 everywhere! I love the stuff
How are your GPU temps?

 

Haven't done furmark, but 79C maxed on Crysis Warhead with maxed settings. Mostly hung around 77C, though.

Speaking of temperatures, how's this for an idea.

Black circles are going to be relatively large holes, green areas will be a grid of small holes.

 

83c is not bad.Maybe you just have to repast.
Well I'm done for tonight....work early tomorrow.....blah!
Well see what more we can do after work, did I mention working weekends really suck!
A lot!
Your surgery plans look great in theory, I hope Ken can get you another bottom panel,

 

I also hope it is a typo. I get most of my electronics from J&R.

 

i want this beast too.... o yeah i found out that all are accessible except the 3rd memory module, which is under the keyboard -_-

the processor and the gpu is just below the normal cover

 

Interestingly enough, when running IBT, I got better temperatures. See below. Ambient 71F or so. And yes, my GPU was sitting at around 45C or so for the test. The only reason why I have 61C max was because I was playing Killing Floor for a an hour and I didn't reset HWM.

Hmm. I wonder if I'm man enough to do OCCt PSU test.

Huh. Why not. BURN THE LAPTOP. BURN IT TO THE GROUND.