Official MSI GE60 & GE70 2012 Owners' Lounge

Very quiet during normal use...fairly noisy if you use the fan boost button, but you only use it for gaming so you don't notice the fan noise over the gaming noise.

 

I'm looking to order the ge60 some time soon but wondering what site would be best. I've always been a fan of Amazon and they have nice prices but would Newegg be a suitable option?

 

I'd recommend a reseller like GentechPC

 

Man I'm really pleased with this machine's thermals. It has more power than my last laptop but it stays cooler. I just played two 40 minute League of Legends games, nearly back to back and my CPU temps peaked at the high 70s while the GPU peaked at 62! My last laptop was in the high 80's for CPU and I don't remember the GPU temps but there were definitely higher than 60.

Fan sound wise, I played with headphones for the first game so it was completely unnoticeable and played on the speakers for the second one. It's definitely audible which is to be expected, but it was tolerable. The game sounds drowned it out, and I'm not even playing at high volume.

The case does a good job of keeping the temperatures away from the outside of the case. During normal use it doesn't get warm at all and even while gaming the palmrest and keyboard area only get a little warm. It cools right back down quickly when you go back to idle/internet browsing. In contrast my last laptop got intensely warm and some parts near the vent were borderline too hot to handle.

All in all I'm really impressed by the power they manage to keep well cooled in a relatively light and thin system. Considering the next step up is a GTX670m and an 8lb chassis.. this is a perfect sweet spot of performance and weight.


Does anyone with the machine have a wattage measuring tool? I am curious to see how much energy it uses while idle/browsing and while the screen is off.

 

@autobulb

i agree with your findings. my temps are similar, though only having the dual core cpu.

i have a wattage measuring device, which you put between the power cord and the wall plug. it is not super precise but it should give an impression of what that machine is consuming.

i will try it and post my results here. i will make an idle test with screen switched off, web browsing with screen brightness set to high, and one test playing diablo 3. it is currently the only game installed.

 

Does anybody have pics of the internals for the GE70? I'm surprised that the thing is so light, and also why it lacks a second, dedicated HDD bay. I mean, the CPU and GPU share a heatsink and fan, and nearly all 17" laptops that I know of have a second HDD bay.

 

Hi I've just got a question for the ge60 owner's on the list. I like this notebook's size/performance/price. How do you guys like your ge60's? Any major problems? Thanks!

 

Hey guys.. I just bought a GE60 from XoticPC and a Crucial M4 SSD that I am going to install myself. Does the Primary HDD slot SATA III 6GB/s? Can't find much info anywhere. There are also options to upgrade to a SATA III drive when purchasing.

 

Yes, it's SATA III 6Gb/s.

 

The GE60 is looking fantastic. But, does it have any other similar worthy competitors?

 

the lenovo y580 i guess is the most similar, anything else with a gtx660m is gonna be super thick, but i guess the ge60 is still pretty thick at 1.5 inches

 

There is a similar spec'd Sager/Clevo but the speakers are located on the bottom front of the machine and are of poor quality, the screen is glossy unless you upgrade to a matte screen from a reseller, and people are saying that it gets pretty loud.

 

Glad to hear about the thermals. I just bought the similarly spec'd HP dv6 and the cooling is horrible. The left palm rest gets really hot while playing skyrim. I now have this one on order from amazon.

 

Yeah the DV6 was looking nice but it would have been a hassle to try to order it here in Asia. Also, the complaints about heat were a big bummer.

Just to add something to the GE60's thermals: I played League of Legends extensively last night and it was REALLY warm in my room, probably mid 80's so. In those conditions the outside of the case warmed up a bit more than before but again it didn't start to bother me at any point. Also, there is the option to ramp up the fan speed with the hotkey in case you value additional cooling at the expense of increased fan noise.

 

My main concern is the heat where you actually put your hands. On this new IB dv6 the left palm rest and the WASD keys frys. Skyrim just makes it go crazy. Even youtube vids make the thing sweaty. So how is it for comfort, thermally? Can you actually put it in your lap at all for browsing. Do the palm rests heat up? Thanks so much for info, I'm eager to get rid of this hp.

 

During regular browsing and Youtubing it barely gets hot at all. The fan never ramps up (or only a tiny bit which is hard to hear) and the palm rests and keyboard area stays cool. Right now I just finished playing a match of League of Legends so the keyboard area and palm rests got a little warm but nothing uncomfortable. After a few minutes of browsing the keyboard became completely cool again and the palm rest is just slightly warm, but some of that may just be from wresting my hands on it.

During long periods of gaming so far the palm wrist area and keyboard does warm up. In all these machines the CPU and GPU are located under the WASD keys and immediate area so there will be heat there when they are under load. However, so far I have not found the warm up to be uncomfortable yet, even when my room was already pretty warm. The MSI also has a fan boost option that you can toggle on/off which basically just blasts the fan at full speed. I have not yet tried it to see if it removes the heat completely because so far I have been comfortable with the temperatures and how warm it gets.

I can't answer your question about the bottom side because I rarely ever use machines of this size on my actual lap. Even if I were on a couch or something I tend to put a flat surface under the machine so that I am not blocking any vents. I just tilted the machine up to feel the bottom and there is only one warm spot under the left palmrest. It's not hot though, just warm, because I believe that is where the heatpipes run through.

Edit: I just played a short 20 minute match with the fanboost on beginning at loading. The highest a CPU core got was 70C and the GPU never went over 56C. It's really warm in my room too at around 75F or 25C. The fan is obviously a bit louder but even just raising the volume was enough for me to ignore it. If you wore any type of headphones you probably wouldn't notice it at all. During the game only the left palmrest got a tiny bit warm and keyboard actually stayed really cool. I will definitely be using this mode during the hot summer months.

 

Sounds great! Thanks so much for the reply. Does it feel solidly built, even though it's light? I like how you can take of the bottom plate and access your hd, ram, and even get at the heat sink to replace the thermal paste so easily. Does League of Legends put any considerable strain on the CPU or GPU? I'm mostly playing Skyrim. Thanks so much!

 

It feels rather solid to me, but you have to remember that in the end it's pretty much entirely a plastic construction. Because of that it wouldn't have the same rigidity as an aluminum body, but I haven't found any reason to worry about it falling apart.

League of Legends is pretty CPU/GPU intensive like any other game with 3D models. I haven't yet installed Skyrim on this machine so I can't tell you specifically how it handles that. Considering that my 540m could play it high settings (though a lower resolution) I imagine that the 650m should have no problems with it.

 

Any information on the battery? How long will the GE60 last without being plugged in (when used for text editing only).

 

Hey, new guy here that just received the ge60. It's pretty decent, considering it is my first performance laptop. And I just had to noob it out by unintentionally disabling the onboard graphics from the processor (through device manager). Any idea where the CMOs battery is? Since taking that out and putting it back in after a few minutes will reset the bios and whatnot.

Or are there any other options besides performing surgery? Btw can't see the bios screen, nor safe mode since the monitor is blacked out and all. Or will connecting it to a different monitor via vga cable work out?

Any help will be appreciated thanks.

 

Disabling onboard graphics in Windows wouldn't disable you from outputting video to see BIOS as that is OS independent. But anyway, I believe the CMOS battery is easily available once you remove the bottom panel. I remember seeing it when I opened it up to have a look inside.

 

The outputs are wired to the integrated not the dedicated, so you can't see anything if you disable it.

 

@jimbo left palmrest gets to 32 degrees celsius when gaming (human hand is 33 degrees celsius so it should not bother you).

Right palm rest only gets to 25 degrees celsius (aka room temperature) because that is where the dvd drive is.

I say this so many times but why companies like msi, clevo, asus, alienware, etc started putting the hard drive under the left palm rest recently is beyond me

 

Does anyone know when the 660m model is coming out, and whether it is a good upgrade relative to the 650m?

 

I'm reading that the 660m is just a higher clocked 650, so its basically a jip. Can anyone confirm? Should be released any day as it's listed on msi's website.

 

Few questions:

1) Any input on the battery life? Obviously it's gonna be rough when gaming but during regular use how is it?
2) Where can I buy the GE60? It seems to be sold out everywhere.
3) Is it worth it to have an SSD installed or is the HDD fast enough?

 

I don't own one but after having a similarly spec'd hp dv6, there is no comparison between HDD and SSD. SSD all the way. $200 for 256gb on amazon (Crucial or Sandisk) is not even that expensive.

 

How would one go about moving Windows from the original HDD to the new SSD?

 

people say you can simply make a clone of everything but there is a lot to be said for a fresh install. People say that there are problems with cloning to an SSD. I'm not sure what kind of backup disc MSI comes with.

 

Hello everyone!
I read that the cpu and gpu of this laptop can stay very cool under load. Have anyone here used MSI afterburner to try to overclock the gpu (is it the same as the turbo drive engine feature maybe)?
If it is as cool as reported I would not be surprised if it could safely be overclocked to the levels of the 660m.

 

At this point I am desperate for some battery life info. I can't find info anywhere!! Even MSI service rep's give completely different answers.

Would LOVE some battery life information. Looking for ~4+ hours with Wi-Fi on typing in a word document on the iGP.

 

Hey peeps I had a few questions, how is the screen color wise? does it display all the colors well, no red problem like the envy 15 right? and is brightness decent?

thanks

 

Can anyone run some BF3 benchmarks on medium, high, and ultra? It would be much appreciated.

Also, is the 650m an MXM card slot?

 

does anyone have any idea when these are going to be available? They aren't up for purchase anywhere and I'm really hoping to get a laptop in the next week or so.

Considering the MSI X460DX instead

 

GE60 is great so far. But, misspelling "Accelerated" damages credibility.

MSI Notebook Official Website

"Acclerated Gaming."

 

You absolutely need to reinstall. When installing on an SSD, Windows enables certain functions that are necessary for the SSD to operate well. TRIM is one I can think of off the top of my head, but there are others as well. If you clone the drive these features might remain inactive. I don't know if you can enable them manually, but I imagine it's a hassle to do so.

Why? It's a simple English typo on the website of a Taiwanese company. They've been making laptops for years and years and just as reputable (if not more) than other big name brands like Asus, Dell, HP, etc.

 

Check out my GT70 review I did battery life testing. The laptops have the same gpu & cpu so as long as the battery is the same capacity you can expect similar performance.

 

I live in Singapore and considering to order a GE60 online (probably from US site). My question is :

1. Will the laptop AC adapter be compatible with Singapore (same as UK 3-pin 230 V 50 Hz)?
2. Is the warranty covered internationally?

TIA!

 

GE60 arrived today! Typing on it right now, what an absolutely beautiful laptop!

I'm super pumped right now so I will wait a couple of days before writing a review. Want to make it as objective and non-biased as possible.

On that note, its been a while since i've done a full laptop analysis. Vicious (and everyone else) , what benchmarking programs do you recommend I download for the review / what do you want to see?

 

If it's no trouble would you mind running 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark11 with the latest drivers and dGPU enabled?

Also, a battery life would be very, VERY much appreciated mate. There are no battery tests for this laptop yet.

 

What site did you order it from and when if you dont mind Im from canada too but every canadian and american site I check says out of stock/preorder or w.e.
thanks

 

Could anyone check if the CPU turbo is being disabled when the laptop is using the dGPU? I believe this is happening on the clevo's with 650m GPU. Thanks guys!

 

OK will do

newegg.ca, however its out of stock at the moment.

 

If I had to guess (and I am guessing), I would say this is because retailers are gearing up for the 660m variant.

 

I just bought the GE60 on Newegg and then it immediately went back to sold out. Dunno if I got the last one or it was just a glitch but hopefully it'll go through.

 

The 660m version just became available on XoticPC's site .
Also only $1200 contrary to the $1300 that was on the official page.

 

Xotic still has it listed as a pre-order

 

Thank you! I am changing my order with XoticPC from the 650m to the 660m. The eta for the 650m one changed to early June so they are both bound to probably ship at the same time.

 

I meant available so that it's now listed on their site as an option.

 

Does the GE60 bios have the option to change the boot order?