*Official* MSI Gx740 - Ultimate Barebone Laptop

MSI GX740 GAMING NOTEBOOK - BAREBONES
•Display: 17" WXGA (1680 x 1050) TFT display TFT display ACV(Amazing Crystal Vision) Display
•Operating System: Genuine Windows 7
•CPU: Intel® i7 Clarksfield Quad Core™ (45nm - Newest Capella platform)
•GPU: ATI RADEON 5870® 1 GIG DDR5 + Broadway XT and Hypertransport technology-With Support For Microsoft® DirectX® 11
•System Memory: Up to 8GB DDR3-1333 MHz Dual Channel Memory
•Hard Drive: SATA Hardrive support up to 640GB
•Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi (DVD+-RW/ CD+-RW) / Upgradable to Blu-ray
•Communications:
Intel® WiMAX / WiFi Link Ready
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Modem Module
Built-in 802.11a/g/N WLAN Card / Bluetooth
•Analog Line Out / Digital 7.1 Channel S/PDIF Output Recognized and Approved by the Highest standards of Dolby®
•E-SATA connector
•HDMI connector (1080p supported)
•Built In 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera




Intel Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Technology-Core™ i7 720QM, 820QM, 920XM (Latest Intel Calpella Platform)
17" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) Widescreen Super Glare TFT Display
Mobile Intel HM55 Chipset Family
ATI RADEON HD 5870- 1 GIG DDR 5 (INCLUDED) +
BROADWAY XT and HYPERTRANSPORT Technology –
Microsoft DirectX 11 support
Windows 7
Bluray/DVD+-RW/ CD+-RW
4-8 Gigs of DDR 3 memory 1333 mhz
160-640 Gb SATA HDD (7200rpm HDD)
Built In 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
Integrated Wireless A/B/G and draft- N
Bluetooth/ Gigabyte Ethernet (Included)
56k modem
4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
E-SATA connector
HDMI connector (1080P supported)
Theater Class 4.1 SRS Premium Sound™ -Certified High-Fidelity Speakers And Subwoofer
SRS Premium Sound™-Certified

Getting mine from FROSTY COMPUTERS. They have this latest MSI model with great configuration prices!

Little tip: contact them by emailing directly to [email protected] and they will work on a price with you. I always get a price cheaper than posted. They are super nice and I get all my Asus and MSI laptops from them. My last GT640 Build was great. I cant wait to try the DX11 5870 card. So far its been the MSI wind, MSI GT 627, MSI GT 640 and pending orders I am going to rock out with DX11.


www.frostycomputers.com

 

My future configuration

GX740
8GB DDR3 1333
ATI 5870 DX 11
Intel X25-G2 80GB or OCZ Vertex LE 100GB
i7- not sure which processor yet marinating on it.

 

Anyone know what the screen quality is like on this? I read reviews of the the gt725, which "I think" has the same screen. The reviews were not terribly favorable.

I really like the 17" with the 1680x1050 resolution, but having good blacks + whites, contrast, and even lighting across the screen is important to me (I do a fair amount of graphic work in addition to gaming).

Thanks

 

But these run pretty warm in the GPU department.

 

Wonder if they'd give me a nice little part exchange for my GT725

 

Hehe that would be awesome blazin.

 

Just ordered one myself from Frosty, Ben is a great bloke. Cant wait to get it and configure from my old system, gonna do some benches and a little review on the side

 

Want to swap? I'd even chuck in the Sims as well!

 

Nice offer but i think im too excited for it.

But never fear people will get to see ti in action , youl see

 

I was thinking about getting this one but the CA tax killed the deal.

 

The barebone version has no media keys?

 

Guys, i came across this website which i think is the GX740 Barebone laptop.

Cube Notebook

Just wanna clarify whether if its THE GX740 Barebone?

 

Yep that's the barebone.

 

There are a lot of resellers that have the barebones version of the gx40. Including:

BTOtech (great deal from them)
GenTechpc
XoticPc
RKComputers.net

And I'm sure there are others too . . .

 

frosty computers as well..

Got mine last week, almost finished benching it up loving it all the way, more performance than i ever expected, and the black look is awsome

 

What did you do to fix your computer... I can recall you had a "no power" 1656...

 

Yeah fixed it recently, got it all running, but i was upgrading anyways, so now i have to sell i guess as a barebones

SEE POST IN THREAD

 

SWEET!!

Dude, how are the temperatures while gaming?
Could you monitor them while playing?

 

Can you post some pictures

 

Of him or the laptop?

 

i pray he means the laptop

i will be uploading to my site and here when i have finished my review including movies and me probably talking a lot of the time, and have my proper camera, cause a phone would not do this beauty and justice

 

Oh man, I think I might go for the barebones since we dont have a clue when the GX is coming out...

 

i like the look of the barebones more than the GX740

 

Lol. I meant the laptop

 

aww darn

 

would this drive fit into the MSI 17" ?
seagate 880gb 12.5mm
YouTube - Take apart and compare 880GB 2.5 Seagate Freeagent Go to other drives.

 

they are a little thicker, i have been able to fit a higher platter 2.5" 1TB drive in this model, without the bracket and creating a new one it will fit. it can also fit with out the bracket though im sure.

 

So the laptop is deep enough right?

 

indeed it is, i will POST some pics with the review to see, that will be up either on 8th or 9th May

 

cool, now i don't have to do it when i get mine.

 

tobias,

How are the temps holding up? Also, how loud are the fans when its on idle mode.

 

Temps are okay, i suppose.



this in an AC room, no cooler, on the desk.

CPU cooling is remarkable, I tell you. Maybe it's my ES 920XM, the lucky batch!

 

MAX/AVG temp while gaming for ~ 1 hour?

 

I played SC2 for about 5 hours in a non-AC room,

ambient temps high, ( my room's really hot.... I can dare say it's similar to Honduras! )

temps reached 105'c.

I decided not to care about the temps anymore, the cards are holding up flawlessly,

and I'm going to move to an AC'd room soon anyways, which will keep my temps down a lot!

when playing in an AC'd room with a cooler, it was about 96 degrees tops.

 

Temps i will post some benches i have been doing, idle, medium, hard, gaming and long hours on idle and gaming for a few hours.

Later today when i get a chance.

 

Thanks bro, the temps are pretty good even without a cooler.

 

Thinking of buying the Barebones through BTO with Wire Transfer, anybody else buy their MSI-1727 at BTO?

 

Paid for it today, now just gotta buy a CPU...

 

Just a question,

how did you get to install Snow Leopard on a non-mac machine?

VMWare?

 

Nope, its very easy, and especially with the Inspiron 1520. Inspiron is close to the mac, me and my buddy with his mac pro benched galaxies and they were exactly the same in performance cept his CPU was 2.13 I think and mine was 2.0. Leopard can be installed on my Qosmio F20 as well with the Centrino Pentium M 750.

I won't have OSX again until there are new ATI kexts for the 5870 cards, if ever.

 

What Bios are you guys using and did you have any issues updating the bios if you updated?

 

i have posted part 1 of my review on my site including temps and machine info so fare, pics of build and first OC attempts.

So Its Fun to tinker With Stuff?.

Video review to come this week and some other benchmarking results.

BIOS i havnt changed on mine yet but i am considering

 

Glad to see another happy user of the barebones version!



Go barebones all the way!

BTW, how are your temps holding for you??

 

Glad you are enjoying your laptop! Btw nice review as well, looks like i am ready to pull the trigger on the MSI 1727 ( GX740).

 

I like the temps but i think they could be better IMO , so i am going to change the thermal compound to something a little more snazzy methinks, then i will post the results from the previous benchmarks. Same deal as before, idle, med load, high load and gaming.

 

tobias,

What are your thoughts on the keyboard area? Does it flex alot, and does it gets warm while gaming?

 

The keyboard itself is a good feel to it, but a little cramped in terms of some keys, arrows could be spaced a little better and the FN and CTRL should REALLY be round the other way, but i think i could get used to them.

Unlike the MS-1656 keyboard which did flex near the arrow keys (lower right hand area) the keyboard on this one doesn't seem to flex at all for me so far, some heavy usage may change this but i am yet to see it flex.

Temp = same as chassis, about 24c or so and not warming the keyboard at all. i was never a fan of the keyboard being warm or getting hot while gaming.

I did the thermal upgrade last night to some Arctic Silver 5 , GPU now idle anywhere between 48c and 61c , cpu though seems to have not changed much seems highest temp now reached about 75c as apposed to 82c.

 

...and this was during what situation? Gaming? Furmark, etc..? Ambient temp? :O :O :O !

 

hmmm yeah does sound a bit vague doesn't it. Ok so lemme explain it this way:

=========TEMP ==========
DEV: MIN | MAX
========================
IDLE

CPU: 38c | 51c
GPU : 48c | 60c

GAMING

CPU: 65c| 81c
GPU: 61c| 85c

FURMARK

CPU: 65c| 71c
GPU: 75c| 92c


Thats the best i can explain it for the moment, hope that makes more sense

Gaming is BFBC2;Farcry2 then Crysis, 1680x1050 , no AA so far

 

wow
tenchar.