Official MSI GE60 & GE70 2012 Owners' Lounge

Yeah so so far I'm currently getting the base product + if ever verified working, an mSATA 60/120GB. (I may need help transferring the operating system here. Again I'm a desktop guy not much of a laptop guy and I don't really wanna break the warranty)

If ever I am decided to redesign the front panel, I'll probably end up getting from Xotic and just have them add the paste (I mean i'm already there might as well have them do it)

Any other things I have to take note? Other necessary upgrades/whatnot. I plan to keep this laptop as my only laptop and living for 4-5 years (hopefully? My HP HDX is still alive and kicking after 4 years w/o any much maintenance aside from monthly full PC scans and such)

 

I've had the GE70 for about 2 weeks now, and so far the performance has been pretty good... I haven't done much on it except for d3, basic web surfing, watching videos, and its been pretty smooth, lags up here and there, but nothing to cry about.

my biggest complaints are about the touchpad and keyboard. These are the "human" interfaces that connect you to this wonderful machine, but they SUCK! the touchpad right out of the box was the worst thing i've ever used. it would randomly click all over the place, and i had to disable the "tapping" feature in order to gain any control over it. Even when I try to just drag the cursor across the screen, it gets like 1/3 the way. I'm not sure if mine is just defective, but this is the worst touchpad i've ever had the displeasure of using.

keyboard is not something i would "upgrade" to... i know some of the sites offering debranded/OEM models have the steelseries as an upgrade... and if anything to me, this is a serious downgrade... I thought I just needed some time getting used to it, but its been really, really hard for me to like this keyboard. Many times it misses keystrokes (esp 'i') and I know Vicious had a replacement, so I was thinking maybe I'm in the same boat...
Newegg has differed me to MSI to open a ticket if they consider these "defects" or not. I don't want to send it to them and pay a 15% restocking fee...

I've also been kicking around the idea of dropping in an SSD and was wondering if people had any bad experiences with this process? I know msi provides a recovering disc (3 DVDs!) and was wondering if this is all I need to reinstall windows? Is it like a windows installation disc? I want to be able to control how the ssd is partitioned.

One last question.... does the GE70 have room for ONLY msata? If I bought a regular ssd drive, would it not fit? (sorry if this is a noob question). I'm planning on getting an external case for the current hdd since I believe it only has room for 1 hdd/ssd if i have an optical drive (which i do)

Thank you to everyone contributing on this forum... its been very very beneficial in making my decision... i hope to get the most out of this sucker

 

Had work order the GE70 for me today. Should be here Wednesday from newegg. All in all, only spent like $1600 (Office 2010 pro + acrobat, some nice laptop backpack, wireless k/b & mouse).

Only thing that I didn't buy was an upgrade to Win7/pro, because of the $14.99 Win8/pro upgrade special M$ is running. Hope that part doesn't bite me in the @$$, not being able to vpn and connect to our domain... Anyone know when Win8 is supposed to drop?

And also, does anyone know how much better the 660m is supposed to be to the 650m? Couldn't find much in regards to benchmarks comparing the two.

 

If you are a speed touch typist then you may never like the keyboard

By all means get the keyboard replaced if it's defective.

Probably getting your notebook fixed would be simpler if you had bought it from Gentech or other resseller that frequents these MSI forums.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the Synaptics Touchpad driver.

I'm using driver v16.1.6.0
Synaptics drivers

Look in progam files/synaptics for touchpad gestures.

You can move your hard drive into a caddy and put it into the optical drive bay and then put a normal SATA III SSD in the bay.

If you buy an mSATA SSD for the mSATA slot it should be SATA III for best performance.

The DVD can be put into an external box if you have use for it.ODDs will soon be obsolete.


EDIT:New SATA III mSATA SSDs from MyDigitalSSD
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X5YAP4/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X5XZEG/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AIYSWA/

The MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 mSATA SSD is available in capacities of 64, 128 and 256GB and relies on the newly released Phison S8 SATA 3 controller and as well as Toshiba premium Toggle Mode NAND Flash memory. It’s performance graduates depending on capacity from 320MB/s read and 120MB/s write for the 64GB, up to 520MB/s read and 320MB/s write for the 256GB and all carry a three year warranty.

The question becomes whether the new MyDigitalSSD mSATA SSD is actually the ADATA XPG SX300 in disguise?

Visit thessdreview for more info.

 

Can anyone give a rundown on how to move the OS from the HDD to the SSD?

 

Hi, thanks for the info. About the keyboard... like I said, I'm not sure what the manufacturer would consider a defect, but unfortunately, if I want to risk sending it in, it would cost me 15% if its not deemed defective.

my laptop came with Elan drivers? I looked for the synaptic ones and I downloaded them, so i'll give them a shot

again please forgive any noobish questions (first laptop of my own, aside from work ones) are you saying that only the msata will fit with the ODD? If i buy a regular sata ssd, then i'll have to remove the odd to get it to fit? I'm trying to figure out all my options to see which one makes the most sense, and what i need to buy to accomplish that... thanks again

 

Ok, so I'm thinking of buying this laptop for college. It was hard fought battle between this and the Sager NP9130/9150. Here's what I thought:

MSI Pros vs Sager
+Lighter
+Smaller
+(Slightly) Cheaper
+Battery
+LIGHTER

MSI Cons vs Sager
-Weaker (graphics wise)
-No matte cover/FINGERPRINT MAGNET
-Rather overt racing stripes on cover
-Less "future-proof" <- opinion

So do you think I made the right choice? I'd like to point out that I will most likely NOT be playing the latest games at top-graphics levels and that I will most likely be carrying my laptop around often (to class/other dorms/etc).

Two questions:
1) How bad is the fingerprint-magnet situation REALLY?
2) How long does the battery last if on lowish settings? (Wifi, Office, web browsing)

The only upgrades I will probably make are the IC Cooling Compound (I don't like hot laptops) and later on (when I get more money), a mSATA SSD as a boot drive.

 

penguin71, I was in a similar situation a few weeks ago and decided on the GE60, mostly due to portability issues. In terms of graphics, I don't necessarily think the 660M Kepler is that much worse than the 670M. I've heard that their benchmarks are similar and that the 660M consumes less power, so I opted for that.

I saw a picture of the back cover of an MSI GE60 and the fingerprints were pretty bad. I'm probably going to get some type of skin or cover to put on top so that I don't have to deal with it as much. If you decide to to opt for the GE60 as I did, I would recommend you consider doing similarly.

Also, someone did a review of the older GE60 (with the 650M) and posted it in the MSI forum. He said, with light usage, he was able to get 4 hours out of the battery.

 

Seems the 0ND-042US model is available on Newegg now, wonder if that means it will be with xoticpc soon?

Also do you guys suggest upgrading things like the wireless card if I get this customized from xoticpc or can these laptop NIC cards be bought cheaper?

 

I was also considering the same two. I was almost sure that I was going GE60 w/660M.

It was the only smaller 15 that I was confident would be able to handle the heat and really wanted something light(er) than my 8.6lbs 17in.

In the end I ordered the 9150 w/7970M.

I have a 5870M now which is just a little under the performance of the 660M, closer to the 560M.

I hae been having major struggles with BF3 ( since the latest update ) and GW2 beta. It convinced me that although the 660M will handle things right now tomorrow most likely will be a different story.

 

The mSATA Slot accessed through the bottom of the notebook is for an mSATA SSD not the optical drive bay.

The optical drive can be removed and replaced with a caddy containing a hard drive;possibly using the hard drive that was shipped with the notebook that's in the internal bay.

In the internal bay a normal SSD can be installed replacing the hard drive that can/will be moved to a caddy in the optical drive bay.

There's a few different options for drive configurations available with a total of 3 internal drives possible if the ODD is removed.

One mSATA in the mSATA Slot
One in the internal SATA bay
One in the Optical bay

My mistake,MSI is using the Elantech Touchpad in the GE70 and not the Synaptics touchpad that's in the GT60/70.

Elantech Drivers:
ELANTECH Drivers

 

Hi, thanks again for your reply.
I'm fairly lazy and I think the easiest thing would just be to get a mSATA drive and drop that into the mSATA slot. Then everything would be the same, and I would have an SSD for OS, hdd for storage, and my ODD. Please correct me if I'm wrong.... (question, will this hinder airflow with the additional drive?)

I looked into some other configurations, and it seems very interesting, but right now I don't have the time for it... but I'll entertain those things another time... here is what I'm talking about:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...sd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html##


Also, I forgot who, but someone asked if the power brick was large... its HUGE! I can give you exact measurements if you need... but its like double my lenovo one I use for work


update:
of course now that I want mSATA ssd, its sold out... newegg only has either 60 or 240gb available for sata3... any suggestions on a 120gb msata ssd sata3? also, i noticed that they're more expensive than their counterpart... but i guess this is expected...

 

I haven't done this myself yet, but from doing these types of things before, you would need to either have your own copy of windows/linux, or use their(MSI) recovery dvd tool to create one.

FYI: This will not be a mirror of what is currently on the hdd... it will be a fresh install and you will lose anything not backed up.

change boot priority in bios to 1. CDROM 2. ssd, 3. hdd (*unless its removed)

boot to the dvd and install the OS onto the ssd

copy over your backed up info to the ssd

reformat the hdd *

These are the steps i'm going to be using to migrate from hdd to ssd. Can anyone see any potential pitfalls? This will be my first ssd, so I'm not sure if there are any gotchas yet. Any ssd driver issues maybe?

 

These are the 2 I am considering...

MyDigitalSSD 128GB SandForce SATA III Smart Series mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT120GB-DX mSATA 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) RAM Experts

They're both a little more than I want to spend... the new mydigitalssd is supposed to be a better performer with the new sandforce tech and all...

any experience with either of these?

 

Yeah,the simplest way is leave the OOD where it is and just put a SATA III mSATA SSD in the mSATA Slot.

If you're going to do a clean Windows 7 or Windows 8 Release Preview installation on a new mSATA SSD I recommend you 1st remove the hard drive from the notebook.

This will help get an error free installation and write a good Master Boot Record.

I always install Windows from a USB stick now since it's alot faster than a DVD.I've done a few hundred.

I've owned many SSDs but no mSATA so far and I've found the performance to be best on the 240GB~256GB SATA III models.On some SSDs the bigger size is alot better.

If you're not in a rush wait till you can get a 240~256GB and the Mushkin Atlas or/and the MyDigitalSSD have been reviewed on thessdreview.The site says the drives for testing are on the way.

Here's a screen capture of the optional MSI optical bay caddy in a GE70 from the MSI korea site.

 

They seem to use the same chipset. And the specs listed for both of them are nearly identical. I'm waiting for reviews on the Mushkin as it seems to be quite a bit cheaper. It was around 140$ on Newegg before it sold out.

 

Thinking about buying a GE60, but I am sensitive to noise from computers. So wondering how is the noise from the fans on this computer during normal use?

 

Normal use like browsing, Youtubing, watching videos, etc, there is almost zero noise. Even the smallest ambient noise will drown it out. If your fridge is on or your window is open you will not hear the computer during this type of usage.

 

Using the GE60 right now and yeah - normal use is zero noise.

The turbo fan option is pretty loud though. I imagine wearing headphones I probably wouldn't hear it - but I might and I bet it'd annoy anyone else in the room.

 

Just got my my GE70 in from newegg today. Two issues.

1.) Battery LED indicator on the front bottom of the laptop (below the trackpad) does not work!
2.) Webcam doesn't work either!

Not huge issues, currently using it right now, and everything else is great (despite some pretty disappointing k/b flex), but these other two issues are bound to drive me bat-fawking-sheet insane.

 

Is the webcam driver installed? Sagers I've bought didn't have drivers installed for everything, maybe MSI is the same...

 

The webcam can be enabled by holding the Fn key and pressing F6 key or clicking on the webcam in the S-Bar.

No special driver for the webcam is needed.

Do you have camera recorder software on your driver CD or is it preinstalled.

 

I'll remove the internal hdd just to avoid any confusion, noted.
That optional optical bay caddy is kinda sweet... i'll look into that, thanks!

Yea i'm waiting for the mushkin atlas on newegg to come back in stock... its $145. I just got an amazon gc so if it were amazon id snatch it up...

 

Yeah, I just reloaded the driver for the webcam, and now it's working. Not exactly sure what caused that to go hay-wire.

But the more important/annoying issue of the battery indicator led, I have no idea...

 

Considering GE60 over 151EM.

Looks like only advantage is backlit keyboard.

Clevo may be GPU upgradeable in the future, not sure about GE60.

 

Unless there's an option I'm missing, there's no backlit keyboard...

I've got the battery indicator LED issue squared away. Let the laptop fully discharge, then the LED started working once I plugged in the AC adapter.

 

Does GE70 have backlit keyboard?
I wanna choose among GE60, GE70 & Samsung NP700Z7C since I need a laptop for gaming & multimedia (so IVB Quad-core, GT650M GDDR5 or better, 1080p) which is easy to bring away (so < 3kg). Which one is the best?

 

Try FN+F6 to enable the webcam

 

I've been lurking around this thread for a bit, looking for a decently priced gaming laptop. The only negatives that were preventing me from buying the GE60 was the glossy plastic (easy scratches?) and the lack of a backlit keyboard.

Due to the need to work remotely next weekend, I pulled the trigger on the GE60 with 660m on newegg. It actually came with a free xbox, which I plan to sell to ease the cost since I already have one.

Any recommendations on a case? I usually stuck to Timbuk2 in the past, but after looking at the sleeve width dimensions, it looks like these products are made exclusively for Macbooks now.

 

it does NOT have backlit keyboard... You may be confusing it with the GT60/70 which has configurable backlit keys

 

Any way to get a free xbox by buying it from xoticpc? Only reason is I want to modify the wireless card (get the killer 1102).

 

Just got my GE60 in the mail today. I immediately slapped an SSD drive in and did a fresh install of Windows. First impressions:

Some people told me it's plastic-y feeling. Yes, it is, but not more than any other laptop.

The hinges are neither squeaky nor loose.

The display is gorgeous, and the viewing angle gradient is minimal.

The power brick is slightly larger than my last laptop, but then again, this laptop is far more capable.

The CD drive is obnoxiously loud when in use... but they aren't used very much these days, I suppose.

Much to my relief, the red stripes are not as loud as the manufacturer's pictures suggested.

Overall, this appears to be a pretty slick machine! Thank you all for your input!

 

To the people that already have the laptop, I have a few questions:

1. How easy would it be to apply IC Diamond thermal paste to the CPU and GPU?

2. Can you easily replace the network card?

3. What kind of temps are you guys playing games after ~2-3 hours? I don't want to buy a laptop that runs really hot, I need this thing to last.

 

#1 IC Diamond is a high quality TC and works well when properly applied but IMO a bit overhyped and overrated.
Thermal Compound Roundup - February 2012 | Hardware Secrets

#2 yes,the network card is easy to swap out for a duel-band 300Mbps or 450Mbps card but adding a 3rd antenna for an Intel 6300 or Killer 1103 is a bit more work.

#3 Temperatures have alot to do with the room temperature and cleanliness of the fan and heatsink fan besides what's in answer #1

 

How much more work would it be for an 1103? That's what I was considering upgrading to =/

Ok then, let me rephrase my question. How well does the laptop's heat management work? I just don't want this laptop to burn out on me after 4-5 years.

 

Have any of the owner's tested how long the battery lasts while on the HD 4000 iGPU? I've read the entire thread.

Also, can any owners confirm that the primary HDD port is SATA III (6GB p/s)?

The weight of the GE60 is listed as 5.28lbs, this is extremely light-weight for a mid-range gaming laptop, with (I hoping) decent battery life.

Any additional information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Can anyone with the laptop comment on the trackpad? I have heard that it is so bad that it is annoying to use for even light browsing. That's the only thing holding me back from buying it.

Sent from my GT-I9100

 

Trackpad is NOT great. But I hate trackpads in general. It's definitely useable, and once you get used to the way it works its not as bad. But I use a little USB mouse and much prefer that.

 

Pulled the trigger on the GE60 660M model yesterday, expecting it on monday. Quick question for those with the computer, what height is the DVD drive? I'm assuming the standard 12.7mm instead of 9.5mm but want to make sure before I go grab a hard drive caddy for it.

 

If you scroll down the page linked below you can see pictures supplied by MSI Korea of the GE60 with hard drive caddy.

It's a new option offered by MSI in Korea.It's in Korean but very easy to understand the pictures and numbers.

It doesn't mention the height.

G¸¶ÄÏ - [G¸¶Äϴܵ¶Æ¯°¡][16G¸Þ¸ð¸® UP][[µð¾Æºí·Î3 ÃÖÀûÈ­] MSI GE6...

 

I thought the trackpad was great on my ge70, as far as trackpads go (I hate them too. Miss the little "dot"). But I use a little wireless logitech mouse.

I do notice an area on the far right side of the keyboard that sometimes doesn't register the key stroke when I hit it (my right thumb is usually the one that always hits the space bar when typing).

 

The free XBox is only through newegg. I added the GE60 to my cart to just leave it there and take my time to decide to buy it or not. Then it says told me to buy it with an XBox for -199.99 the bundle and they made the decision for me, lol.

 

I have been reading and looking at buying the GE70 for a few weeks now. I have been looking at XOTICPC in large part because of my perception of the reseller support and the ability to order it customized. As I am working through this there is little I would want customized-wireless card and maybe thermal paste. Both of these seem possible with this pc for the end user. So it comes down to the support piece.

The xbox deal through newegg seems great as I imagine I could resell the unopened box for $140 on craigslist. Any reason to hang on for the order to come through at XOTICPC?

thoughts appreciated.

 

It looks like none of the boutique re-sellers have the MSI GE-series (w/ GTX 660M) in stock yet, but NewEgg does, plus the free XBox 360 is a great deal.

I too considered upgraded thermal paste (IC Diamond 7) and a faster Wifi (Intel 6235) but I'm sure the stock paste that MSI uses will suffice, plus after reading the link that WhatsThePoint posted (#284), it seems that 'upgraded' thermal paste may be over-hyped. (Mustard and Mayonnaise is cooler than most other upgraded thermal pastes?? ) Plus I can add the Intel 6235 later if I really need it. Good news is the stock wifi card is the Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 135, with Bluetooth 4.0.

I plan on installing a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD (hopefully the primary disk controller is SATA III (though the smaller mSATA port is SATA III so that's good news), and doing a clean install of Windows 7 using the official ISO from Digital River. I'll also install an HDD in an optical bay caddy.

I'm really trying to find a good estimate on battery life, but I'm only guessing that the newer die-shrunk 3rd Gen i7 CPU and Kepler GTX 660M plus nVidia Optimus will hopefully give me at least 3.5 hours on battery using the Power Saver power option. We'll see.

This MSI gaming notebook, at 5.28lbs, seems too good to be true. I had a Clevo P150HM (i7-2860QM, AMD 6990M) and I'm thinking the i7-3610QM will be slightly slower than the i7-2860QM and the GTX 660M will be about 70% as powerful as the 6990M, but nearly 3lbs lighter, and hopefully with better battery life. The MSI is a significantly less expensive laptop too, so I'm concerned about the build quality.

 

Hi,

I was planning on buying the MSI GT780DX-406US in a couple of days. I was also looking at the MSI GE70. I've set my budget to $1250 and really can't cross it. Now i'm confused. I really like the steelseries backlight keyboard on the 780 and the 7.1 ch sound, but GE70 has Ivy Bridge. From what i've read the GTX570M and GTX660M are comparable in performance. I would like to do a fair amount of gaming on the laptop, so heat and ventilation is also an issue. Do you think the GE70's well ventilated?. What would you guys recommend? Going with the older GT780 or the newer GE70? In terms of performance, which one would be better?

 

I have a strange feeling that while initially better at thermal conduction, mayo will both start breaking down much faster and corroding the hardware sooner than things designed for the use...

 

I too suspect that condiments wouldn't be a very good idea to use as thermal paste in a computer, good point. But it was a very interesting read. I wonder what thermal paste MSI is using. Do you know what the half-life is for thermal pastes? I have several old tubes of AS5 laying around.

 

Not sure if mine is just defective, but its terrible. I can't navigate without it clicking everywhere. I downloaded new drivers for it (both synaptic and elan) and no better. If i disable tapping its better, but it stutters everywhere, just not a very pleasant experience. Just an FYI, I've had no other problems with other trackpads. I'm using an external mouse, but if I had to only use the trackpad, i would throw this out the window

I was contacted by MSI's support after leaving a not so good review on newegg, and I responded with the information they requested for, but its been 5 days and no reply... not sure what that means.

 

It seems that the trackpad on the MSI GT60 also suffers from the same problems. Hopefully MSI fixes this problem.

From the notebookcheck.net MSI GT60 review on 6/7/2012:
Touchpad
It seems like our testing sample has a defective touchpad. The cursor jumps up and down wildly despite the touchpad being untouched.. If the touchpad is turned off and an external mouse is used, everything works normally. We will attempt to obtain a new testing sample in order to determine if this is a design flaw or a unique defect. We will also try to review the touchpad in detail, assuming we receive a new sample with a working touchpad.

 

Sequencer1, thanks for the information on the wifi, I had been tring to find information on what one is stock. I have read that the thermal paste MSI uses is very high quality MX-2. I have also read that the hard drive connection is SATA III. Have you considered keeping the hard drive for bulk storage and adding a mSTA drive. There is a $20 code on this one bringing it down to $259 fir 256G
MyDigitalSSD 256GB 50mm BP3 Bullet Proof 3 mSATA 6G SSD | My Digital Discount
Looking to add this paste to my order:
Newegg.com - MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material

shniggies, I had read earlier about your concerns with the track pad and it seems to be a common, but not universal complaint. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Please post if you learn anything more.