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

Good idea actually

 

I'm not removing them just yet--I want to test the laptop out some so I know I don't have any lemon parts--but with my G51 I used some of my spare Articlean.

Wattage, voltages, and plugs are identical, so there's no reason why it won't. The GX660R comes with a Liteon 120W PSU. Don't know about the G73jh. I might see if I can scrounge an Asus PSU if it's indeed 150W, so I can say I still support Asus.

PSU works fine for non-insane usage.

The only reason the PSU fails is because I was doing stupidly-intense stuff on it. I had no problems with hours of Crysis, Left 4 Dead 2, or Killing Floor.

I'm just annoyed with it, personally, because I want to cool this beast down to its limit, and I can't see its limits if the most stressful benchmark I can think of kills the PSU. Also, bear in mind that the Asus PSU also gives out after ten minutes of so. I think it's simply drawing too much power for a 120W PSU to handle.

 

I have very little knowledge in hard drives so please bear with me. Can someone please explain to mean the reason behind getting an SSD and an HDD. from what I understand one is used for booting up the computer (SSD) and the other is used for actually storing games and programs on (HDD). Many people are mentioning getting rid of RAID and doing something else with the hard drive settings (im not sure what). All I want to do is play games and use it for schoolwork in college. Is all this hard drive shenanigans necessary or beneficial? can someone please shed some light on this? Thanks!

 

I recieved my gx660r last friday, and was immediately getting random black screens of death(or thats what i think they are) and so i tried updating the video card drivers and it still happened. I read somewhere that the 10.1 driver is the most stable, so i downpatched, and they seem to be more infrequent now, but they are still happening. any ideas guys? im dreading the idea that i may have a botched GPU and will have to RMA it cause I'm at college and it would really suck not having a laptop for a month+

 

Where did you get it from? Did you give the company you purchased it from a call?

 

SSDs are incredibly fast--even compared to RAIDed HDDS--which means they are ideal for booting and programs that you access frequently. The downside is that they have a horrible GB/$ ratio.

What a lot of people are doing--and what I'm doing in a week when my $500 (goddammit all) 240GB SSD comes--is putting an SSD and dedicating it to Windows boot and frequently accessed programs. Other things that don't require performance--most games, movies, music--will be put into a large-capacity HDD for storage.


For the most part, the RAID setup on the GX660R is perfectly adequete. You can probably get by with it with no problem. In my case, I had an Intel SSD in my Asus G51vx, and once you get used to SSDs, you're spoiled by them.

 

Get RMA because that shouldn't happen. I haven't had a single black screens of death with this machine.

Sorry about the review guys... it has been postponed for TBA until I get enough time and creativity. I don't want to do a halfassed review and I still need to run more benches etc.

I didn't think that my new job would require so much time heh. I can't even enjoy my new lappy much!

I also want to try overclocking since I am confident with the GPU temps.

 

I'm already trying some overclocking out. My 5870 doesn't seem to like it when I overclock the memory to 1100MHz.

Right now with 840/1135 and with 72.9F ambient I finished a 18-minute run with a max of 85C. However, I did notice that the temperature was slowly but surely going up, maybe one degree higher every three minutes or so. If I continued I think it would have kept on going higher.

Can't wait to get modding on this thing. First order of business is to open up some intake vents immediately beneath the fan to ensure it's getting enough fresh air. Doing that helped my G51vx spectactularly, and I don't see why it won't help here.


By the way, Ry, did you try out an OCCT PSU test?

 

Whayts a good program to OC the GPU with?(link )
I tried the ATI overdrive in CCC and it sucked!

 

That's what I was using, haha. What sucked about it, if I may ask?

But, in any case, MSI Afterburner or AMD GPU Clock Tool (make sure to get 0.9.26.00 are supposed to be good. You can google those. Kratos is too manly to be spoon-fed URLs.

 

It crashed when I ran the stability test. I don't use spoons I use the Blades of Athena fool!!!
I will have my yogurt cup...err I mean I will have my revenge!!!!

 

Weird. When you say it crashed what happened? Your computer [insert color here]SODed? In any case, when overclocking with the tool I use a combination of furmark and Vantage to test stability.

Blades of Exile >>> Blades of Athena, btw.


EDIt:GAH! STUCK PIXEL!

 

Hey Guys I was just wanting to know how the screen quality is? I'm not worried about viewing angles but I read somewhere that the blacks look grey is this true?

 

Screen was black(it was still on) but nothing worked had to force a shutdown and restart.
Thank Zeus it restarted again but I won't try that again, you say you raised clocks to 840/1135 with no problems?
No stuck pixels for me!

 

Tested with Furmark only. I haven't done 3DMark or anything like that yet.

I actually noticed the pixel when I was examining Kratos' albino virility. That red dot shouldn't be on his nose!

It's a single pixel on a 15-inch 1080p screen, so it's not that obvious... but dammit, if I paid $1600 for this thing I want it flawless. Hopefully there's a way to fix it. If not, I hope the return is easy. Well, it's Ken, so what do I have to worry about.

 

Yeah, if you use full to moderate brightness on a low light ambient like a dark room, the darks do look on the gray side.

You can use color settings and brightness settings to make them look the way it should, and in high light ambients or bright rooms, the screen looks good and blacks do look black.

It's all mostly due to the WLED backlit. Too bright for the screen

As for overclocking, I will try 800/1100 at night and see how it goes. It I can keep a decent temp with such clocks, I will be more than happy.

I can do crysis at 1920x1080 with most high settings at 25-35fps, very playable so overclocking will only improve my already happy gaming experience.

 

Does it have backlit keyboard? Somebody already said it hasn't but is there a version that has it?

 

Hate to be a pain in the butt, but can any owners tell me what the name of that webcam software that came with the system? Id like to reinstall it

 

No back-lit keyboard

 

Thanks for the clarification. The whole G73 fiasco has made me a little hesitant.

 

I think it is webcam companion?

 

Thank you very much.

 

SOooooo, now that there are several 'owners' of this beast, who's gonna start a dedicated Owner's thread? Come on fellas..... Show your pride! We need model specific owner unbox'ins, pics, vids, marks, an nfo page, etc., etc., etc.

Let's get busy! <'drum-roll please'..... who will take the lead?>

 

Just ordered mine from xoticpc. Only thing I upgraded was the thermal compound and wireless card. I am waiting on Intel's third gen of SSDs which should be out later this year. I really hope this thing works out.

 

I got the computer from gentechpc. Are you sure i need to RMA it? there's no driver's that might be the most stable? like i said i'm on 10.1 right now and they seem to happen a lot less than the 10.8/10.9 versions. I'll keep watching to see what causes them, and if i can't find anything i suppose ill have to RMA it. One more thing - With this screen i've noticed some fonts on certain programs come up really small cause it's such a high res screen on a 15.6''. Is there any way to work around it? For instance, on skype the contact list is SOOOOOOO small, i practically need a magnifying glass just to read the names.

 

The laptop comes preconfigured with 125% DPI settings, so the actual icons, and most text, comes bigger than it should. 1920x1080 is a huge resolution and if you put 100% size, you will see how small everything realy is.

As for RMA, well gentech is an awesome place and Ken will help you with anything you need. The thing is, you shouldn't be getting those BSoDs. I haven't got one at all. When it happens, what are you doing? Playing games, video etc?

I have played several games (Borderlands, Crysis, BFBC2, Killing Floor and many more) and doing lots of things during work (programming, browsing a lot of files etc) and haven't had a single issue.

 

I’m still on the fence. This thing just looks a bit too wacky for me – I might wait for the Asus G53 or at least news of its existence in the coming weeks.

 

To be honest, I haven't done anything all that spectacular. today it happened a bit differently, I was on skype and playing league of legends, and when i tabbed out then tabbed back into the game, it gave me vertical grey lines on the screen and i had to power off the computer manually. Should i try using different video card drivers? i'm on 10.1 cause i read they were more stable. Also, if you RMA the machine do they give you a new one or just replace the video card, because i'd hate to have to reinstall everything. Also, how long do RMA's take because i'm in school and it would be hell(as a graphic design major) to go more than a week without a personal laptop.

 

From what I have been reading, I am not certain we are really talking about a 'BSOD' here. Are you referring to an occassional & momentary flicker to a black screen, then the screen recovers back to normal. If so, this is normally indicative of a driver issue, and can usually be resolved by simply updating to the latest driver package.

I would uninstall your current graphics driver via 'ADD/REMOVE Programs', flush any remaining driver remnants with this tool here, and then reinstall to the latest mobile driver package from ATI.

Give it a try and see if this helps. If you still have an issue, not to worry..... you are in good hands. Since you purchased from GenTech, I am absolutely 100% certain Ken will get your problem resolved! Give him a call!

I hope this helps, Good Luck, and keep us posted!

 

You may not need to RMA at all. Again, give Ken a call! He may be able to work you through this issue in no time.

 

Ugh.

I'm debating whether to go through with the downtime of getting this machine replaced or just live with the faulty pixel.

 

Well, since you just got your machine, no doubt now is the time to do something about it. Personally, that lil' sucka would burn into my brain, driving me NUTS!

How ever you decide, Good Luck!

 

So what exactly makes the SSD better? does it load games and saved files faster? will it actually affect game performance or just the initial game boot up? if that is so than would an SSD be more of a convenience than an essential to high performance games and programs?

Im thinking ill just go with the 2x 320gb HDD (possibly 1 500gb and 1 320gb) because an SSD isn't really in my budget right know. If I was to later decide to upgrade to an SSD is it difficult to replace the drives (keep in mind i have only added some RAM and installed a wireless card into a PCI slot before)?

Thanks for all the help!

 

Swapping a hard drive is not that tough, right in the same neighborhood as swapping a video card. As long as you can get to the bay easily enough. Remember that you either need a commercial move program (YMMV) or have media, patience and time to do a complete reinstall.

I think the SSD is meant for data that doesn't change frequently like the OS and the programs (games). So boot and level loads would be quicker. Save files are data and are on the bigger data drive. I might be wrong though... I suppose it depends on where your game saves it's files and if you migrate your profile to the data drive.

Does someone with an SSD and HDD setup have a different view or a pointer to a good writeup on this setup? Here is one such writeup. Looking at this, do yourself a favor if you do migrate your profile: do another search for the same process and use symbolic links rather than the search and replace on your registry. That way, hard coded programs will obey.

Homer

 

Lots faster.

Just boot up and loading levels. Actual FPS is determined more by GPU and CPU and RAM.

Pretty much. Like I said, though, now that I've used an SSD, I'm feeling withdrawal even when using a RAID system like this one.

you can always use a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid. Boot times are within spitting distance of an SSD and most-used programs are cached to the 4GB memory for quick loading. It's a good bridge between SSD performance and HDD prices. It's by no means an SSD killer, but it's notably faster than a 7200RPM traditional drive. If you do with plain old HDDs, get two of them, same size, same speed. That way you can RAID them.

As for upgrading, HDD upgrades are even easier than RAM or wifi upgrades. Seriously. Remove bracket, remove old hard drive, insert new hard drive, insert bracket. Ta-da.

 

Question on changing the stock HD config: who keeps the replaced stock drive?

Homer

 

You mean if you configure it on a reseller's website? I presume that they do.

It's usually cheaper to do the upgrade yourself.

 

So, i called ken at gentech pc, and he pretty much told me i have to do a system restore back to factory settings/stock video card driver. I'm backing up all my files as i type this and I'm really hoping it was just a corrupt video card driver that's causing my BSOD issue. He also called MSI asking if they had any reported RMA issues with this model and they don't so I may just be an unlucky duckling apparently. I'll keep everyone updated and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that i can avoid an RMA here. wish me luck!

 

I have a question on how do people check for dead pixels on their laptop screens?
Also what kind of cooling fans do you guys recommend for this laptop gx660?
Also what is the approximate boot time for this laptop as I am about to receive my soon and was wondering if I can get some of these tips and responses.
I really appreciate you guys answering and doing benchmarks and tests on it.
Hopefully some people can answer.

 

For dead pixels use this: Dead pixel tester with display aids and illusions.

Cooling fans are not really needed since the notebook has fairly good colling, but if you really want one either the zalman NC2000 or the cryo LX (LX is better)

boot time depends on many things such as what hardrive you have programs, startup files, etc.... But I would say with raid 0 7200 rpm booting with factory setup after the initial setup... maybe 30-45 seconds?

 

I used Dead Pixel Buddy. Easy to use.

And yes, while extra cooling is only optional, I'm never without my almighty xpad.

 

Why is that time of the month! Zing!
Kratos has his revenge!

 

Well, I tried overclocking a bit. I used Core 760mhz and 1030 memory for a very small OC.

Ran 3dmark06 (while I download vantage), with turbo on, Turbo fan, and I got 13294. Not bad eh? It sure kicks my 10600 from my G51J haha.

proof!

Oh yeah, my GPU temp was 71 C so I might try 800/1050 soon haha

 

Nice!
What did you use to OC? Overdrive?

 

Overclock away. Temperatures are quite nice. Except for my CPU, but everyone says not to worry about a 81C i7 quad.

Clocks at 840/1050 and CPU turbo was on. Fan was set to auto. As always, passive cooling only. Ambient was about 73F.

 

Those are amazing temps. On the np8690 I had with some IC 7, On a 880, 1120 OC I hit around 84 C I think, but the Cpu temps were always cool on that thing although I care more about gpu temps anyway...

 

MSI afterburner haha. It was quite simple to use and fairly to the point.

Nice temps! Sadly my ambient temps are around 90-100F so I probably wont reach such temps with passive auto fan. I will try right now 800/1050 on turbo fan and if temps remain under 75, I will consider normal fan.

Core i7 temps are indeed high. I was never able to get them low myself.

Yeah, I also care more about the GPU temps and this laptop has a really nice GPU cooling solution.

I shall keep OCing!

 

Do you think we'll see a version of the 660 with the NVIDIA 480M? Anyone know offhand whether the motherboard can even handle that GPU? I've been wondering if XoticPC or one of the other boutique dealers would be able to do this upgrade.

 

Not a 480M GTX but a 460M GTX.

 

480m? I hope not. That energy-sucking, hot-running card isn't going anywhere near my laptop.

Depending on how the GTX 460m plays out... who knows. Might be a fun project.


And for the OCer's out there, what's your maximum memory clock? Like I said, I get a blackscreen when I run furkmark with 1100MHz memory.