MSiI GX740 EU/i5 version

Tryied to ask for advice at the "what to get forum side" but got no help, so I´ll rephrase here.

Is the MSI GX740 Intel i5 version worth buying?

It seems to be almost impossible to get a Intel i7 and a ATI 5870 ddr5 in the same. Even the G73J version we have here has the 5870 ddr3 (albeit it has the i7 QM820), but this costs over 2000€ .

The general specs of the MSI GX740 that I have here (Finland) is like this:

Intel i5 430m
4GB DDR3
500GB (don´t know the speed but think 7200rpm
ATI HD 5870 1Gb DDR5
DVD/RW Super Multi /Blu-ray

I´ve mailed a store that do alot of modding and sell alot of "special" stuff if they could change the processor to a i7 for me in a MSI (I would buy if from them new). The current price for this setup is 1200€ here (might get it somewhat cheaper), not sure about the mouse that should be included.

Asus G50J has the i7 but only a GTX 260m, smaller screen and less pixels. Still costs ~300€ more.

Thanks for any help guys!

 

Dilgar, at the moment it seems i5 processors are more powerful then people actually think, now this is a good thing because your GPU takes more weight then the CPU in about 90% of games, granted GTA-4 you'l want a good Processor for ,

Oh and by the way, that price is godly if your putting it along side the G73 , heres my view,

Bite the bullet,

Buy the 740, and im fairly sure you will love it (Yes even without the i7)

 

Or you can sell the i5 and get yourself an i7 8** on ebay ... simple.

 

Yep, its that easy to upgrade,

 

Thanks guys!

This forum has got a good active crew, might stick around longer (though I frequently visit to many forums already )!

I got an answer from the store about the processor upgrade and he said that the cooling is design for the i5 and it would overheat with the i7, I took it with a fair bit of salt as it surly was an answer on the "safe side". He also said that they rather not do any upgrades and went on mumbling about having done it once and never wanting to do it again .

How much work/hard would it be to upgrade the i7? I mean I think I could "sneak" one from the US here without paying tull for it ? I might stick to the i5 for a while and then upgrade the CPU later on. Would the warrenty be lost with a change, or just the processor warrenty if there is any such thing in laptops?

The GPU on the GX740 sure has a grip on you and I know it is there that the performance will met it´s bottleneck, but how is the OC on the GX740 with an i5? If one could OC the i5 430m to say 2,9GHz stock that would be great already!

I´ve OC the last desktops I have but I feel that it is much "safer". Again have very limited experience what comes to laptops.

Thanks again for all the answers, it seems that most of u guys here are from everywhere but the EU, so thanks for all the help!

And sry for the typo in the title .

 

Thats odd, im sure theres someone with the 740 or its barebone equivalent running a 920 at safe temperatures lol,

The i5 wont really bottleneck unless you find that kind of game, im not sure if you can overclock i series yet (mind you there was that 1, post) but i'd assume if it were possible to get the i5-430m to 2.9 it'd be awesome,

Also there is an i7 dual core if you feel "Safer", but an i7 720qm should be fine,

i think the dual is i7-640, you could also get ram heatsinks and litter the HS itself with these tiny thing use an adhesive paste or something =).

 

Isnt it easier to sell a machine with stock options and just end the deal there. So they give you a reply to scare and turn you off. Thats some nice BS.

Ok there is a little difference. the i5 has 35watt TDP while the i7 720 and 820Qm is 45W and the 920XM is 55W, so there is a difference, but so what there are great modders here to chill your notebook, so no worries

EDIT : just for knowledge, there are guys here who has slapped the 45W Qx9300 and Qx9200 in their GT725's, that was an upgrade from a P9500 25W proccy, so dont let that watt thing worry you.

 

That's me dude.

 

Sorry meraki, i honestly would reference you if i knew these things,

But now your here, tell him how dam easy it is .

 

Well I´ll be sure to check in when I get the GX740 (and most likely before that too), just hope it doesn´t take too long, the stores homepage is showing 2-4 weeks, maybe there is some problem with the blue ray as discussed in the main GX740 thread. For me they could skip the hole thing and just give me it cheaper .

Thanks again!

 

Could be blueray dilgar, but personally, i think its 5870 shortage, alot of companies are using it now .

 

Alienware and others can have 5870 shortages, but MSI is a card manafacturer, then how a shortage?

 

Silicon shortage? Cant remember but im fairly certain that it was something like that, Maybe even something with the 40mn process, but even MSI have demands for their gpus .

 

yup, got my i7-720Qm and 4GB of ram for $263 w/shipping US funds.

 

Dig deeper for answers always!

 

Easy to upgrade? How then? I have no technical knowledge but like a i7 in my gx740.

 

How? Its simple buy a new chip from ebay, wait for shipment, then toss the old chip out the window, put in the new chip, thermal paste, press power button, and whoa more raw power

EDIT : dont really toss it out the window.
EDIT 2 : I think couple of guys have done it here and could guide you with tuts, but I really feel that once you open up the notebook, you'll see that its as easy as plugging in and out of a power socket.

 

i dont need anything else? just buy a 920xm, or 720m from ebay, then put it in? no chance of killing the notebook or something? desktop i7's and notebook i7's are desame?
its really as easy as replacing ram?

edit: no need to upgrade bios or install some software?

 

no, dont put the desktop one, its like i said power socket, if u try and fit a 3 pin plug in a 2 pin socket, it wont fit, right?
Same way, they are physically different. So you need a 'mobile' i7.
No bios, no nthing, just like ram, btw desktop ram and laptop ram are different too.

 

It's easier than a desktop switch,remove the 4 screws holding the fan and unplug the fan wire, you remove 3 little screws that holds the copper heat sink mount-remove, untwist the cpu locker 180 degrees, place in new cpu and thermal paste, then put everything back.

 

thermal paste required? i called a shop today and they said it doesnt matter alot. 5 degrees tops.

 

5 degrees is a lot just by changing paste.. dont ya think?

 

Hi,

I bought the "Nordic" GX740 about a month ago. It comes with the i5-430, ATI Mobility 5870 GDDR5 and a 500 GB 7200 rpm seagate HDD.

I'm really happy with the way it performs. I had already bought an 80 GB Intel X-25 34nm SSD, So I exchanged the HDD for that and put the HDD in an external USB 2.0 case I have. I'm currently looking for a Danish or European distributor of Optical Bay Caddies from Newmodeusus so I can have two HDD's internally. I rarely use the DVD drive. With the SSD it now boots Windows 7 64-bit in 23 seconds from full shut down, and about 10 seconds from hibernate.

About performance: at stock speeds it benches 11.5K in '06 and 7.5K in Vantage.

For more performance tests in games see this article: Notebookcheck: Review MSI GX640-i5447LW7P Notebook

Yes, it's the GX640, but apart from screensize and 75Mhz slower GPU core clock speed, it's the same performance.

Basically, the GX740 will run any game on the market really well (for a laptop). It "should" run Bad Company 2 at acceptable framerates on High settings. I have yet to try this myself as I don't own that game. Maybe someone else here can help you with exact figures.

 

Groundhog, can u confirm that the thing runs bluray without problems?

And nice to here it still runs games smooth...I may have to wait a while for mine, how much did u pay for yours (pm me if u want to), just wondering cause I might buy it from some Nordic country if I find it cheaper. U do have the ÖÄÅ keys as normal don´t ya no ü or some ? Thanks for the answers!

Lol guess this thread became the "official Nordic GX740" thread...just wish someone would correct the small typo in the thread name .

 

everything on highest with AA on hgihest and highest resolution, no lag.
didnt record FPS but it didnt lag.
Removed the game though since i didnt like the gameplay. modern warfare 2 ftw.

 

The nordic version has ÖÄÅ and ÆØÅ printed in white, green and red, and how they are mapped depend on your windows country settings. There are som rubber stickers included if you need a different configuration like US english.

It only comes with a DVD/RW drive here, no blu-ray option. Same for Finland, as it's the same model marketed in Finland. Check out: This MSI link (You must select your country from the drop-down box and look in the table for local configurations)

It uses a standard SATA optical bay, so you can buy a blu-ray drive like Sony NEC Optiarc BC-5500S for it if you like ~215€.

I paid 1175€ for my GX740. Half the price of the nordic Asus G73!

 

Thanks Groundhog. I asked about the bluray cause I read there has been some driver issues. I also was a bit sceptical about the model having bluray cause as u said the MSI Nordic homepage doesn´t list it (the stores here still do).

Yup! That is one reason I´m going to get the GX740 instead of the G73. I also have very good experience with MSI desktop computer parts, they are sturdy and reliable IMO. I think I could get the Asus G73 for 2k € but that is way over my budget (and sanity) to pay for a computer.

The pricing is the same as here for the GX740. Thanks again.

 

can some one tell me on online store eu the EU that sell's the msi 740 with the 5870 gddr5 ? and that can ship to Portugal (here is really the end of the world, not even asimple MSI we have here )

 

I hate to disappoint but looks like the EU crisis scared MSI and they have left the Portuguese in nowhere, they official have no distributors, resellers, online shops or retailers selling it to portugal.

The only hope is eBay.

 

Yes, sadly this is the only option.
I can't find neither Gx740 or Gx640 on eBay. And if it's bouht from the US, It would cost around 1200 + something like 400€ taxes... So... And I live in Spain, sadly too.