Official MSI GE60 & GE70 2012 Owners' Lounge

well i'm glad i'm not alone and crazy

yea hopefully the msi support team can address this issue. I was hoping I could return it to newegg and get the newer model with gtx660m and a free xbox! what a deal for only 50 bucks more

also, not sure if I should mention this since its seems to be in high demand. but newegg dropped their price for the mushkin atlas 120gb msata drive. its $140 now (145 before) and set to reappear in inventory on the 19th... hopefully i can snag one

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

 

Quick question on mSATA form factor. Is GE70 MO-300 form factor compatible (mSATAs such as mydigitalssd and mushkin mentioned in the forum)? it seems like (from theXoticPC review on youtube) there are no holes for securing the mSATA drive.

 

The link I posted in post #290 shows an mSATA SSD in the GE60 about half way down the page.

 

Ok ppl, question regarding storage on the GE60:
As far as this thread goes (I've read the entire thing and seen the gigantic picture on #290 korean website, thanks for that btw), I'd like to know things straight:

-> How many Storage Devices can the GE60 have?

Would that be 1x HDD/SSD in the main slot, a mSATA SSD in the mSATA port as depicted AND a HDD/SSD with a ODD caddy? I'm assuming that, if I'm correct, there are 3 "storage slots" and all of them are SATA III.

As side question, how does the GE70 works regarding the same storage specs?

Help is really appreciated, since i'm just a newb/enthusiast. Thanks in advance.

(I've been stalking this topic since page 2 )

 

I just preordered my GE60 from xoticpc, is this eligible for the free Xbox from Microsoft? I wasn't aware that it was.

 

No it isn't. As far as I know, it's not Microsoft's, it's newegg's bundle.

 

mSATA Slot = SATA III for SATA III mSATA SSDs

Internal SATA bay = SATA III for SATA III SSD....HDD = SATA II

A caddy in the optical drive bay would only be SATA II.

Optical Drive Bays are restricted to SATA II

The Intel chipset only supports up to 2 SATA III drives.

 

Aw shoot, is newegg offering the free Xbox with the GE70? Because I just bought mine from there, and didn't see anything about a free Xbox...

 

Anyone have a source for a hard drive caddy that fits the styling of the laptop? I'm still wondering whether to try to move the HDD to the ODD bay and get a 2.5 SSD or just get a mSATA SSD. Are there any disadvantages to the mSSD besides the slightly higher GB/$ ratio? I'm completely new to SSDs, haven't owned one before but I think I might have to jump on one for this machine because I bet it would fly with one. I'm still on a 5400rpm drive

 

Just found out of Newegg's bundle so I took the deal + got myself a new backpack and a K-lock

Yay I have 3 working Xbox 360s now lol. But honestly a sweet deal - i'll probably just sell the Xbox - end up spending approx $1100

 

Newegg's Xbox 360 deal is awesome. I'm already selling it to a friend when it shows up on Monday which basically ended up making the 128 msata card I grabbed along with it free.

 

Check out Link's review, lots of helpful info:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/668214-link1313s-msi-ge60-review.html#

FelixUnger, thanks for the link to the MyDigitalSSD mSATA III drive, that's a good price, quite a bit lower than the Mushkin (240GB-$355US):
Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT240GB-DX mSATA 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Mushkin has a 120GB version that's around $140US. Though I believe the Mushkins are faster, but I'm concerned about their Sandforce controllers.

shniggies, according to Dell the 660M GTX is a 75W card, while the 650M GT is a 45W card, I'm not sure if that's factoring in nVidia's GPU Boost or not, or if Dell is incorrect. I'm wondering if the laptop with the 660M will be too much for the 120W power brick and if the battery life will be significantly lower than the laptop with the 650M. High temperatures would be a serious concern too. The rumors say that the 640/650/660 are all the same hardware, but with different clocks. But then why does Dell list the 660M with a significantly higher TDP than the 650?

autobulb, the mSATAIII drives are pretty new, I'm aware of only two models that are SATAIII capable. As far as SATAIII 2.5" SSDs go, I'd recommend the Samsung 830, Crucial M4, and Intel 510. The 256GB Crucial M4 is $180 right now on Amazon. The speed is significantly faster than a traditional HDD. And regarding HDD caddys, I believe any 12.7mm HDD caddy will work with most laptops. I bought a NewModeUS caddy for another laptop and it should work with the MSI. If you prefer stock appearance, you would need to remove the stock faceplate from the DVD drive, and place it on the caddy. Here are instructions (pdf):
http://www.newmodeus.com/pics/OBHD/OBHD-Faceplate-Installation-Guide.pdf

More info:
The MSI GE-series use the Intel HM76 chipset, so RAID is not possible. The MSI GT-series use the RAID-capable HM77 chipset. A single SSD is fast enough for me. I'll use my HDD in the caddy for my backups.

Well, I've never owned an MSI before, so this will be interesting.

 

The 660m is an overvolted and overclocked 650m, so it's power consumption is definitely higher, but not that much higher imo, and considering that the CPU is 45W (45+75 would be 120 already and they won't give you a power brick that's weaker than the actual max consumption). I didn't find any exact info on their consumptions though, so it might be possible.
Battery wise there won't be a significant difference as with Optimus both cards are almost disabled and consume very low power.

Edit: Also, has anyone (who has their laptop already) been able to overclock the GTX 660m? I just found an Alienware thread in which the guy couldn't overclock the GPU core, because it was somehow limited by Dell and it would suck if MSI did the same as the 660m overclocks very well.

 

What''s the situation with the 660M drivers? NVidia says none are available.

 

Just placed the order for the GE70. Note: you need to click through to select the combo with the xbox.

I used this coupon code which is good for $10 off orders over $100. FB1MTHANKS4

Going to order the mSATA drive now

Ordered the mSATA. The coupon code that gives $20 off the 256GB is SLICK20BP3. Now that I have ordered, I feel I can share.

Now that I have committed to this machine, look forward to being part of the discussion.

 

lol that website is awesome....here is 1600 x 900 blurry , here is 1080p Crystal clear WIN!!!!!!! (later on down the page) if your icons are to big you can lower the resolution(wont that make it blurry lol).....if you dont use cinema pro your games will be blurry

wow obviously 1080p is better but 900p is not blurry and last i checked i never used cinema pro and my games dont look blurry gotta love advertising

Just pulled the trigger on this from the egg ge60 (660m version) on the way with free xbox The free xbox was too good to pass up...oh well look like im gonna have to repaste the cpu/gpu on my own

 

If anyone can confirm overclocking the 660 on this I'll buy one!

 

The nVidia GPUs are new, so it will take some time for drivers to become available. I don't want to start an AMD/ATI vs nVidia war, but I'm looking forward to nVidia's superior driver support on the mobile side.

I'm also intrigued by the 'Audio Boost' and 'AMP' features for audio using headphones. My Clevo had IMO poor D/A converters. And DPC latency looks very low for the MSI, which would be great for people doing audio and video production.

 

I have a ge60 with an 650m inside. Using msi afterburner 2.2.1 it is possible to change the core clock from -135 MHz to +135 MHz and the memory clock from -502 MHz to +1000 MHz (considering the excellent heat management of this notebook it is disappointing that the core can't be overclocked more than that ). BUT changing the core clock does not result in any real change in the core clock according to the hardware monitor in msi afterburner Changing the memory clock does work very well though. After only testing a little bit I think that the memory core can be successfully overclocked +1000 MHz (3000 MHz memory speed)

 

Anyone have any idea when Newegg or Amazon are going to restock the GE60 w/ the 660m?

 

From my experiences ATI is much better about providing laptop drivers then Nvidia, who usually prefers to let the manufacturers supply their own. But ymmv. Laptopvideo2go exists for just this reason.

And Newegg just ran out, as I bought mine on Friday, so when they get new stock is anyone's guess.

 

Here is the benchmarks of GE70-0ND-033US with GTX660M :

 

It looks like you were able to overclock the memory clock, but not the core clock or shader clock. Is that right?

Looks like there's no cooling issues for this gpu here

 

You know, up till now I've been thinking to myself that I need to get a laptop with a 7970m or a 680m since they're going to be the bestest best best upgrade.

Looking at Ken's benchmarks makes me think I'm thinking too big. The 660m is superior to my own benchmarks, which were done with overclocks on both the CPU and GPU. Ivy Bridge and the 660m will be clearly better than my OCed 5870 and 740qm. (For comparison, on Vantage with my 740qm using the MSI turbo mode and my 5870 clocked up +20%, I hit 9267 on the GPU, 12004 for the CPU, and 9827 overall). I can't tell what max temps were, but the graphs looks like a max of 60C, while my 5870m hit 70C.


Damn you Ken, for being so devious and making me confused.

Although, I do have to ask (and without browsing the entire thread) the GE-60 only comes with one dedicated HDD slot, right?

EDIT: Never mind, watched a demo video. One HDD slot. But there's an mSATA SSD slow. Gah! Torn!

EDIT2: According to NotebookCheck, the core/shader clocks for the 660m should be 835MHz. In the pics I see 810MHz in GPU-Z. Any reason for that Ken?

 

That was the issue of the people in the Alienware forums as well. They could increase the core clock in Afterburner, but it didn't actually increase :S. Hopefully drivers will solve this as in ASUS laptops the core can be overclocked easily without issue (they got very close to 14k in Vantage).

 

I didn't overclock it at all, it's was all stock and the TDE on GE series are automatic unlike GT series you have to manually press the button.

I install MSI Afterburner just to check the temperature.

You are right about the Core/Shader clocks, I just downloaded the latest GPU-Z and it's now showing the correct clocked:

 

Ken is the man. Like, Kenshiro levels of manliness.

Anyway, Ken, is it all right if I posted the replies to the email you just sent me? (Or you could do it yourself, I guess, haha).

 

I got a question about the GT70.

I'm thinking of buying a GT70 (GT70 0NC-027NL) with only one HDD installed (750gb). In the future (when i got alittle more money saved) I would like to put a SSD in the secondary hdd bay.

Do I need bracklet or a hdd-caddy to instal the SSD? And yes, where could I buy them?

Thanks

Edit: I've been looking around on the internet. Will this be the bracket I need to instal the second HDD/SSD? http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=356 And if this is the part, would anyone know a shop that ships world wide (or atleast to the Netherlands) (a)

 

Wrong forum, but no bracket needed for 2.5 inch.
SSD prices are falling like a waterfall.

 

whoops, sorry about that.

Indeed, Seeing that the I pay around 800 euro more for the gt70 with 2x SSD I rather pay around 130 for a aftermarkt SSD

 

How does Laptopvideo2go work? I'd like to upgrade the drivers for my 660M but all of the 302.42 updates have only been released for 635M and lower. Which I think are all Fermi architecture and the 660M is kepler (I have NO idea what the that means but I'm concerned about compatibility.) What's the danger of installing a driver that isn't correct - could I permanently eff anything up?

 

I don't think you can mess up things entarely nor permanently, just make a restore point prior to installing new drivers, even if there's 99.99% chance they're the correct ones, you never know. About the archtectures, all 600M+ are Kepler.

 

Not all. The 670 and 675 are a rebranding of the old 580 technology.

 

notebookcheck has 635M and 630M listed as Fermi

 

Laptopvideo2go generally just takes the drivers released and modifies the inf to support all cards. I can't speak for the GE60, but I didn't have any issues getting drivers from them back when I owned a Dell XPS with Nvidia 9800m.

Like stated above, create a restore point and everything should be fine. The drivers are absolutely coded to support the desktop Kepler cards, so you shouldn't see any compatibility issues.

I have the 302.59 drivers sitting on my Windows 7 USB key waiting to be installed when I receive mine at some point today. If I run into any issues I'll report them here, but I'm not expecting any.

On the video driver topic, Nvidia release 304.48 beta drivers for the 600M series today, but apparently they're broken and don't work.

 

I upgraded my gpu drivers to the newest available from msi (296.31, old but newer than what my ge60 shipped with) and now I can overclock both core and memory speed with msi afterburner!
Do anyone know if it is possible to overclock beyond the limit in msi afterburner?

 

What are the risks associated with MSI Afterburner and what are the kinds of actual improvements in FPS that you see?

 

The same risks associated with any kind of overclocking. FPS improvement will depend on your card, how much you overclocked it, and what game you're playing.

 

I guess I'm asking more generally - I've never overclocked before.

 

look here:

MSI Afterburner limits to low (7850)

 

Can anyone comment on the battery life of the GE60 or GE70 while using the iGP for everyday tasks at low/medium brightness? I'm looking for around 4 hours.

Also, how many Whrs is the 6-cell battery?

 

Link posted some answers in his review.

Looks like 59w and 4 hours.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/668214-link1313s-msi-ge60-review.html#post8578281

 

Don't mess with voltages (I don't think you can, anyway, not on the software level) and the worst that should happen are BSODs and driver crashes. They won't cause any lasting harm

However, as with any overclocking, pay close attention to your temperatures. If you're stable at a certain clock rate, but if you're hitting 90C (for example), you need to ease back. Constant hot temperatures can shorten the lifespan of your components.

 

49Wh? 4 hours battery life can't be right with light web browsing then, even on iGP. I'm guessing more around 3 hours, if even that.

 

Here's more of what he said:

This laptop contains a 6-cell (59w) battery which is housed at the rear of the laptop. It contains a lock button and can be easily be removed by moving a latch to the left.

I am disappointed MSI could not have fit an 8-cell or 9-cell battery into this laptop but the battery life is quite good, I ran two tests:

40% Brightness , WiFi on, Light web surfing: 4 hours 03 minutes to 2% battery life.

100% Brightnesss, WiFi on, Gaming: 1 hour 55 minutes to 2% battery life.

 

Just received mine from UPS, updated firmware on the msata SSD I grabbed, now in the process of removing the HDD and installing Windows on the msata.

Good god, the ease at which you can get to all the internal components is a revelation after the nightmare of trying to disassemble a G73 to get at the CPU/GPU

 

I second this, I saw NewEgg has it the other day and went to order it today and it is out of stock, disappointing. I have an order in at XoticPC but I may forego the few upgrades that I did in order to get it sooner because they seem to take quite a while just to do order processing.

 

Alright, question for anyone who performed a fresh install. What did you do with the turbo button? All I get when I click on it is a window popping up asking me to choose which program to open. I installed S-Bar again but i can't figure what to do with the turbo button

 

NBCH review ge70 (i5 3210 + gt650)
Review MSI GE70-i547W7H Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

poor chassis and keyboard, and the battery is 49 wh no 59 wh (i want to confirm this) - 3hs at idle, but cooling is good for the hard

it says the ge60 with the same gpu and a 3610qm is going to be reviewed soom (i'm very interested in it)

 

I researched the GE60 0NC model with the 650 gpu and decided that is what i wanted. Then I bought a GE60 and found out that there was a 0ND model with 660m gpu and it was a preorder. That was the 28th of last month. I just got off the phone with sales at https://www.excaliberpc.com and they said that this model will begin shipping on the 28th of this month. Don't know about newegg or amazon shipping dates. From what you all are saying it sounds awesome. Upgrading from i3 intel cpu and integrated hd graphics with a 5400rpm hdr to a mid range gaming laptop.