Official MSI GE60 2013 Owners Lounge

This information has been posted, but I'll recap so people don't have read up as much.

1. Heat: The CPU temps on a properly pasted system with this chipset will be about 45-50 idle and up to 80-90 under full load. That is true within a few degrees for this laptop, the GE40, Clevo W230 or W350 and slightly better for larger 17" models due to better cooling setups. If you've ever owned a gaming laptop before, that's pretty common, since days of yore. GPU temps can get pretty high in the 70-80 range, but that's again not unheard of for gaming lappys. You will notice that many of us are using Intel XTU to undervolt, which reduces temps and improved battery life slightly. I also highly recommend using a cooling pad for desktop use, this is general advice for any system.

2. Battery life: Pretty clearly demonstrated that the best battery life for this system is 3:30 of light intensity use at 50% brightness. Three of us now, including myself, have gotten roughly the same results with almost identical clocks and voltages. Don't ask me what settings you should use for XTU, or I will angrily say "use forum search." There are screenshots and full results early in the topic.

3. Durability: Nobody can tell you this. This years models have new internal parts and different shell designs. So no comparison to last year or earlier models is relevant unless giving a general idea of MSI's quality. Personally, I had a previous MSI laptop and it ticked merrily along while overclocked and used hard for 2 years, only finally being killed by my house catching fire. On the other hand, there have been bad models and defective units reported here, much like any other brand. The parts in these are all new though (besides things like drives, RAM and cards), so only time will tell how long they last.

4. Which other models are worth considering in the same range?: You don't have a lot of options for hardcore gaming acceptable performance at $1200 or less. You have this, the Clevo W230 and W350, MSI's GE40 and GE70 and finally the Lenovo 510p (I'm not including older models, you can get last year's Asus and Alienware low-end gaming systems pretty cheap now). The Lenovo is probably the best from an overall build quality standpoint, but is only offered with a 750m single or SLI. Since the SLI version is slightly out of the price range unless discounted, I would not consider a single 750m comparable at all to models with a 760m or 765m. So that leaves you with the Clevos and MSIs, of which I would consider this the best option overall.

5. Can the GPU be replaced: No. That is true for all of the similar models you see from Clevo, Asus, Alienware, Razer, MSI and any others I'm missing. Each model comes with it's GPU hard soldered to the board.

In general, I hate to repeat elitist gamer dogma, but in this case I have to. If you want to be a pc gamer, you have to be realistic about several things.

A) If you are buying a gaming system, be honest with yourself. Gaming systems do that well at the sacrifice of most other things. Trying to justify it as a school or work expense is unwise as it will generally be far worse at those purposes than other products.

B) Have deep pockets like Mr. Toad. Being a PC gamer is like being a race car driver; you will have to replace and/or upgrade often because you are playing in a league where equipment breaks down or becomes obsolete quickly. Take any lifespan you think normal for an average consumer device and cut it by half or 2/3 and consider yourself lucky to get that. Personally, I build a new desktop about every 12-18 months and buy a new laptop once every 1-2 years. Yes, it's expensive. The cost effective alternative is to buy a cheap laptop and an Xbox, which I highly recommend if the above sounds like madness.

C) Look up the term "Power Creep" and then think about how it applies to PC hardware. PC hardware is already a few months outdated by the time you can even buy it. There will already be articles about the next big thing by the time your cutting edge system arrives. If you are throwing around the term "future proof" in modern PC gaming, expect people to laugh at you, though mostly in a friendly and commiserating way. The truth is, especially with laptops, that in a few years the average student notebook will run circles around the Alienwares of today. That's just how the parts race works. Your performance will slowly degrade every time a new game engine or directX version comes out, so spending slightly less and upgrading more often makes a lot of sense.


Hope that helps.

 

thanks ryan, again you have cleared up a lot of misconceptions shame there is no easy way to make people see the information as many fail to use the search function, and just want quick answers.

 

Hi,

What about the Super Raid SSD? I heard that its not included? Thats a bummer. I cant decide between this laptop and the Lenovo Y510p SLI version, I WAS leaning towards the MSI but after I've read this forum, Im reconsidering the lenovo. Im getting the laptop at the end of this year, can i know you guys' opinions? Thank you

 

Currently the Y510p with SLI is on sale for $1199, which makes it a better deal than the GE60 generally. That's debatable as SLI is not always as functional as it should be, while a 765m will always offer the same performance, but overall the Lenovo is slightly higher performance/cost. If the Lenovo is not on sale and is around $1350 like normal, I would say it's not such an easy choice anymore. The only major advantage the Lenovo has besides SLI is battery life.

You would have to configure your MSI with raided drives. As simple as picking your options from drop-down lists. The stock configs just offer either an HDD, single SSD+HDD or single hybrid HDD.

Also, I should mention again: My laptop, the MS16, is the barebone version of the GE60 and can be bought for about $1-200 less than the GE60. So that makes the gap considerably wider between it and a normally priced Y510p.

 

I have a few questions,

a) Is the screw for the ssd included?
b) Is there an extra ram slot?

Thank you!

 

A) No, I'm pretty sure I remember pulling 2 of them (1 for each drive) out of my stock.
B) 2 slots total, though CPU-z reports there being 2 more for some reason.

 

I've found a workaround for the ty touchpad.
The asus smart gesture drivers work, and they allow to use almost every function of the touchpad without having to use the clickpad: both right and left click work by touching once with two or one fingers. I'll stick with these drivers.

Here they are
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

 

Ryan;
Great info! What laptop would you get if you were looking for a good quality school laptop (and were content with gaming on an x-box)? I was looking at MSI GE60, but really need a good quality school laptop for my son starting freshman year of college (majoring in communications - so I expect alot of audio video stuff - that is why I thought of a "gaming" laptop).

 

The GE60 compromises portability for power.
Any laptop would work for communications work.
An ultrabook would have great battery life and be very portable. Perfect for schoolwork.

I got the GE60 because, although I'm a student myself, I game only on PC, so I needed the extra power.

 

You don't think an ultrabook would be too small? Also most don't have DVD drives do they?

 

13"-15" is the perfect size for a laptop, 11" would be too small. I'd go for a Toshiba R930 or something like that one

 

Ultrabooks are also laptops, hence they come in whatever size you want (13", 14", 15.6", 17"). To make it thinner they remove DVD bay. To make it light they remove high power components (quad core + high end GPUs) as they need cooling setup which increases weight. To get higher battery life they use low power components such as Intel CPU-U models. But in the end you get a light weight laptop which can run movies, run OS and run Office apps and may be old games.

Recap:
720p medium graphics or more (Gaming) - 1. Heavy laptop (x>5lbs) 2. Higher power 3. High quality performance
Run apps + Office work + Movies (Media) - 2. Light weight laptop (x<5lbs) 2. Lower power 3. Low quality performance

In the end you have to sacrifice one for the other. No way out! (OR buy both for different purposes )

 

New video card drivers released (beta): Drivers | GeForce

 

As far as a good all purpose laptop with some gaming ability while still having decent battery life and weight, I would recommend the Lenovo Y series, HP Envy or Sony Vaio. All of them are offered with either a 740 or 750m GPU while still getting 5ish hours best battery life. This year's Sony and HP models are significantly better about heat than past models, which is why I would recommend them next to the Lenovos. Also all three range from $6-800, making them far less than most MSI systems. Toshiba is worth looking at too.

 

Received my unit today from XoticPC. The first thing I did was get the old thermal paste out of there and replaced it with some Wakefield 120 compound. This stuff is cheap as hell and performs extremely nicely. The stock paste job was useless and looked identical to the one pictured on page 31. Repasted I get 45-50 idle temps in a 75F room. Running GTAIV multiplayer on high settings (only game I have downloaded in steam), it seems to be capping at around 90 but usually staying at around 75-85. Overall I'm very happy with it!

 

Unless you pay to get a repaste then it will just be the factory job you get, always worth a repaste in such a situation.

 

Hi all read through the thread and have a few questions, but first of all thank you very much to ryanlecocq as your posts have been very informative.

History, Ihave used gaming laptops for the last 3-4 years I just sold my m17x r4 with 7970m as the weight and size was making it very tough to use at school and on the go with my research I am currently using a Y510P Haswell version.

I need CPU power as the programs I use every day in the Computer Engineering field require it and this Lenovo does not seem to cut it. It throttles when it hits 91C killing the Turbo Boost feature as this has SLI it almost always hits that temp, even after a repaste to AS5.
On battery the 510P under load throttles to a measly 800MHz which is abysmal, not even reaching the minimum requirements I need to run some programs using VHDL/Verilog (millions of test cases).

My main question is when under load does the GE60 throttle killing turbo boost, also how about on Battery?

I got my Lenovo for 1000 new with SLI from Amazon which was an awesome deal and making it hard to switch but I want the processor power of the full processor when I need it without having to be plugged in but like I also said I want the portability of a thinner laptop like the GE60/GE70 (I would love the GS70 but the price is too high).

I have seen the pictures and the runtime info of the processor undervolted and all but I haven't heard any talk of throttling when on battery, sorry if I missed it.

Thanks again all.

 

Just ordered my first this laptop along with a Samsung pro 256gb sad. So excited!!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

What you need is a laptop with 2 fans, one for cpu and the other for gpu. As long as you look for laptops with a single fan, heat will be an issue.

 

Heat isn't the Issue, it, the Lenovo , never even reaches 75C and it just throttles, On games I get 200FPS on i get 20, it throttles that bad. And it's not even hot yet. I made the switch to the GE70 and will see if that is better if not I will go to something else. Have to wait till it comes in.

 

A carte blanche statement like this is not going to help, heatsink size and the rating of that fan/fans will have a huge impact.#

The GT series only uses a single fan and so long as you get one that is not broken (looking at you anandtech) then it has some of the best thermals out there.

 

Exactly, the first thing I will do with this laptop is check the thermal paste as I have seen some of them didn't come pasted so well.

 

I've never run into any throttling issues on my GE60. I'm running a clean copy of windows 8 and have the latest BIOS and firmware installed.

 

Thank you,how about when on battery still no throttle?

 

Not that i've noticed. It ramps up to 2.4ghz when needed, but I don't do anything intensive on battery, so the cpu probably doesn't feel the need to go higher.

 

Thank you, I ask because I just bought one if these to replace my new lenovo y510p as it throttles down to 800mhz on battery and I can't even play a game, even when the laptop is cool.....

 

Thinking about getting the GE60. Quick question though, if I go the route of replacing the ODD with an SSD, is that SATA interface SATA 3?

 

Yes it is.

 

But does 2nd HDDcaddies SATA3 compatible? This is a question.

 

It doesn't matter since no hard drive would saturate it and you wouldn't saturate it on an SSD unless you were running a benchmark.

 

I've discovered a way to eliminate that annoying touchpad lift off (as demonstrated here: MSI GE60 2OE-003US touchpad issues - YouTube). But it involves entirely dismantling the laptop. What you have to do is get beneath the touchpad and bend the two retainer tabs on either side of it until the slop is gone. Doesn't seem to be a specific amount, it was different on both sides of mine. Just until it feels right. Now there's a nice solid click instead of that annoying sloppiness you get when clicking. Definitely feels like a high end touchpad now.

 

The caddy should just be a passthrough.

 

Thanks for the replies. Picked up the GE60 last night and also bought a Crucial m4 128GB msata SSD for it. Not quite ready to give up the optical yet.

 

Do you know this for sure? If it was a simple connector then yeah, but I saw many electronic components in the caddy, not just electronic roads so I am not so sure.
If you find this out please notify me.

 

Hello

I'm having a problem playing battlefield 3. While on game, the CPU throttles down to 0.8Ghz and then goes up again to 2.4GHz Its a for half a second but it slows down the game really noticeabily and its really annoying. The temperarute gets around 80-85 degrees so thats no problem and the GPU isnt a problem neither. I've pushed the CPU to 95º and it didnt throttle, it seems is the game.

 

And what were GPU' teperature at that time? Try to use Trottlestop and uncheck BD Prochot box.

 

And what were GPU's temperature at that time? Try to use Trottlestop and uncheck BD Prochot box.

 

I was having the same issue on BF3.
Tried reducing settings and it would still throttle.

I used to take off the battery when I was at home, to prevent it from getting hot while gaming, hopefully extending its life expectancy.
One day I decided to put the battery back on, just to see what would happen, and guess what!
NO MORE THROTTLES!!!

It seems that the Power supply (rated at 90W) wasn't enough to handle the heavy load of the CPU/GPU/HDD.
I now play with the battery on and plugged in all the time and it just doesn't throttle on any game. It also doesn't get that hot either.

Make sure your Power plan is "High performance" aswell.

 

The laptop needs at least a 120W power supply.

 

You're right, the PSU is rated at 120W, my mistake.
It still doesn't explain why it is throttling without the battery though. Could 120W still not be enough?

 

The 120W psu that came with my ge60 works, and so does my 4yr old 120W psu that came with my old laptop.
Maybe the msi motherboard doesn't like it when the battery is removed.
Or the AC in your house is funky so your psu can't put out clean energy.

 

For me the throttling has dissapeared. I did nothing, just upgrade drivers to 326.80 beta and it was gone.

By the way, i can confirm the ODD SATA port is SATA3 as well. I've relocated my SSD in the ODD and the HDD where it was.

 

I just got my laptop can this laptop fit two hard drives at the same time. I just recently bought a ssd, or do I have to remove the old and put it in an external HD enclosure?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

It has room for one 2.5" drive, and 2 msata drives. Or you can buy a HDD caddy that will replace the optical drive.

 

I just noticed this issue on mine. Is it still happening to you? I've tried the drivers from MSI and from Realtek but no difference, might have to get the laptop replaced.

 

Can anyone tell me where the Orange power light is?
The one that is supposed to tell me if the NVIDIA GPU is being used. I can't find any orange LED's even when I'm playing games.

 

It's on your power button. Blue when using the Intel GPU, orange when using the Nvidia GPU.

 

Hey guys, I bought a GE60 2OE last week, I am really happy about it.

I have a question, I get always low WEI (windows experience index) graphic score when I test my laptop. It's always arround 5 (win 7). Laptop has a gtx 765 graphic card and I dont think its normal. How much score do you get?

I have installed latest drivers and activated high cpu nvidia graphic card from settings.

 

I get the same score of 5.0 running windows 8. I think the os uses the onboard Intel 4600 graphics rather than the gtx765 to run the assessment. Any answers on this would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Yep, it is really strange because I ran a test on my friends laptop, it has gt 650 and got 6.8 WEI graphic score :/