Power Pro 11:36 (MSI 16F2 barebone) review

Hey Tim4...I think you might want to update your signature

 

i just got mine recently, and its awesome.

only thing that bothered me abit is that the cpu temps go like max 90" c when gaming, so the left palmrest area gets quite hot too.

 

Hmmm, that is unusual. What is your ambient temperature in the room?

One thing you can do that will help is put something that is about 1/2 inch tall under the feet at the back to lift it up and give it more air space.

 

spoke with msi and was told that removing the warrenty sticker does not void your warrenty, as long no damage was done to internals. Do you know differently because in the video it says removing the sticker voids warrenty.

 

There is no sticker on the PowerPro R 11:36, it is only on the MSI GT683R.

What we said in the video is that you "risk" voiding your warranty. Remember that MSI can change their position at any time, and just because one person there said what they did I personally would not rely on that. If what that person said was really true, then why would they put the sticker on there?

What are you going to say when they tell you "so sorry". "Hey, wait, somebody there told me otherwise when I called in". Pretty risky.

 

You can remove the sticker in the USA and Europe without voiding the warranty. Users have the right to add or replace memory in the USA and upgrading the HDD without voiding the warranty. I believe this is covered under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act.

But, if you do cause damage in the process of cleaning or upgrading, you will void the warranty the parts added by the user are not covered by the MSI USA warranty. This has also been confirmed by other resellers.

 

Can you point to any sentence or paragraph in that Act that covers this issue?

So, should MSI ever say "so sorry" are you going to say "Well, an MSI reseller said...". Resellers do not control MSI policy. If, for a reasonable reason MSI were to take that position, you would be shooting blanks.

 

yea... did you read it.

"Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[2] This is commonly referred to as the "tie-in sales" provisions,[3] and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives."

 

That does not address this issue. That is addressed to, for example, only genuine Ford parts can be used in a Ford, or more aptly to computers where you can only use a Fujitsu hard drive in a Fujitsu computer, or an ASUS WiFi card in an ASUS computer, or back when this Act was written an IBM hard drive in an IBM computer, hence the reference to "tie-in sales".

That clause has nothing to do with a manufacturer's right to limit their warranty for their laptops that have not been opened by the user, or any other unauthorized person or repair facility.

There are reasonable grounds for this limitation while in the warranty period. That is, an unauthorized repair center, or an inexperienced individual, can indeed do damage that is either not discoverable, or very difficult to discover.

This is why virtually all major national/global brands have the same limitation included in their warranties.

 

I, too, am considering purchasing this notebook as my next. I only have until Sept. 1st to make a decision on a model so I've been researching a lot lately.

I did have one question about performance. I've watched the shootout video and read every review I could find. However, nothing has been mentioned about games in my favored genre. I normally play MMORPGs such as Rift and WoW.

I was curious about it's performance in games such as these. If anyone has first-hand experience with settings/fps I'd love to learn more. Especially in Rift; as I know very few desktops, let alone notebooks, are capable of running it in ultra mode.

Thanks

 

Hi! Yeah this is very nice laptop for it's price! Unfortunately I don't play MMO games. But you can search for this config: intel core i7 2630QM is somewhere near to desktop core i5-750 and GTX560M is very near to desktop GTS450 according to notebookcheck. You can try and search performace of titles you have mentioned on this type of config to have an idea how it will look at your laptop. Or you can google laptops with similar specs(MSI GT683, Asus G74...) and ask owners about performance in MMO games.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into that.

 

I've ordered this barebones and am looking forward to playing with it!

I am moving most of my stuff in my sig to it, just grabbing an I3-2310M for now and will look into getting an i7-2820qm later.

 

Please look at first post with updated shootout video.

 

Now that the MSI GT683 is coming soon with a GTX 570m, I hope its 16F2 barebone cousin can get the option soon as well!

I'm looking to buy a laptop before early September for a trip abroad. It seems like until then, there won't be huge differences in laptop technology, except wide availability of the 6990m in some laptops?

 

The PowerPro R 11:36 (MS 16F2) is due to come with the nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M w/1.5GB GDDR5 sometime in September. We won't know exactly when until closer to its arrival date.

 

Thanks. I am a bit confused since in the thread below, a RKComputer rep states the 570M for the 16F2 barebone is not planned. But for September, it will come in a 17" barebone variant.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...gtx-570m-now-available-pre-order-gentech.html

 

Well, we will just have to wait to see what actually happens. Early word from manufacturers often changes.

 

Let's hope for the best!

 

I hope so as well. A 16F2 (11:36) with a 570m sounds like my perfect laptop at this point! Just curious, I see you have this laptop with a 5870m. Did you install that yourself since I only see resellers offering Nvidia cards for it.

 

Yeah 570M looks like optimized 470M. Yes I have installed it myself. Took 5870 from GX660. Pretty impressed with results. I was always curious about Sandy Bridge + 5870M performance. Look at stock and overclocked values from 3Dmark vantage and 3Dmark 2011. Ambient temp during testing was 30C. Overall I am very pleased with performance of PowerPro 11:36. Truly affordable gaming machine!

 

My 16F2 is up and running.

Lol at windows 7 booting before the logo finishes. Thats just with the 2.1ghz 2310.

 

570m has more shaders AND higher clocks than a 470m... Its a shaved-down 580m frankly...

The 570m is aimed at the 6970m... only time and mature drivers will tell.

 

My bad! Thanks for correcting me!

 

Impressive stock results there, here are some of my overclocked results:

Vantage (physX off) 8818 (9710 GPU score)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i3-2310M Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P8818 3DMarks

3dmark 11: 2408 (2322 GPU)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i3-2310M Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P2408 3DMarks

 

Nice results! How did you managed to overclock your GPU?

 

I used nvidia inspector.

 

Now that you have used your laptop a month more or less... Do you think that you could have this laptop for a few years? Aside from playing, the laptop itself, can be used for a couple of years??

Thanks

 

Hi, yes I am sure about that. I can't see any everyday application(games, multimedia, office) that will stress this laptop on the horizon.

 

Thanks! Thats good to know!

And the graphic performance? Do you think it could handle for how long?

Thanks

 

It could handle all games on high settings till next gen consoles will arrive(what will be in a 1-2 years), coz mainly all games is console oriented nowadays.

 

That sound better than i thought

Thanks a lot, im a lot closer to get mine

 

I am considering to buy this notebook.
I am choosing between this one and a Clevo barebone with the same spec,I have heard that Clevo's keyboard and touchpad are pretty bad. How do you compare R11:35 with Clevo?
Thanks for the review by the way

 

You are welcome! I can't tell you anything about Clevo, simply because I never have any experience of using it. But I can tell you, that keyboard and touchpad on PowerPro have decent quality. Very responsive.

 

Hope no one minds me reopening this thread, since the last post was almost a month ago.

I've been researching for months about what laptop I should get. I was seriously considering the ASUS N53SV-A2 or -DH72 until I recently stumbled upon this PowerPro model. The graphics card in the Asus model is okay (nVidia GeForce GT 540M w/1GB GDDR3 w/Optimus), but it's not as powerful as I'd prefer. So I started looking around at other options. I'm not a gamer, but I am wondering if the 1.5GB nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M card in this Powerpro model will be good for HD video editing (Vegas, Premiere Pro) and After Effects? I am also a VJ, so I frequently use live video mixing software (GrandVJ, Resolume, etc) where I stack several layers of HD and SD resolution video and add lots of effects in realtime. I'm pretty sure most dedicated graphics cards can handle VJ software though. I'm mostly curious about the video editing, rendering, and After Effects. If I got the laptop I'd get the standard i7-2630QM processor and 8gb memory.

It doesn't seem like a lot of people own this laptop, which is one reason I'm a bit cautious of getting it. Has anyone else purchased this laptop and can you tell me your experience with it? Any problems or difficulties?

 

well this laptop is nearly identical to the 683DX(R) line so you can also try look there. Also the GTX 570M is also used in GT780DX, they just discussed about it quite alot recently.

But for your demand I think you should be fine, this is a very solid piece of machinery.

 

I'm a little confused. I kind of assumed that with the exact same configuration the Power Pro/barebones would be significantly cheaper than the MSI GT683. Turns out that's not the case?? Observe:

PowerPro R 11:36 $2092.00
15.6” Full HD (1920x1080) LED Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte LCD (AU OB156HW01 V4)
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM (2.0~2.9GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound applied to CPU + GPU
16GB (4x 4GB) DDR3/1600 CL9 Dual Channel Memory
Intel® 510 Series 120GB SATA III Solid-State Drive
750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth™ 3.0+HS Combo Card
Windows 7 Premium - 64-Bit w/Full Version OEM + Drivers & Utilities Disks
3 Year Parts - Free Ground Shipping - 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support + Lifetime Labor

MSI GT683DXR-603 2169.99
15.6” Full HD (1920x1080) LED Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte LCD (AU OB156HW01 V4)
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.2~3.1GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound applied to CPU + GPU
16GB (4x 4GB) DDR3/1333 Memory
Intel® 510 Series 120GB SATA III Solid-State Drive
750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth™ 3.0+HS Combo Card
Windows 7 Premium - 64-Bit Pre-installed + Drivers & Utilities Disk
MSI US & Canada 3 Year + 1 Year Global Parts & Labor Warranty + 1 Year Accidental Coverage + Lifetime Tech Support (Registration within 30 days of Ship Date Required)


That's less than a hundred dollar difference with the exact same specs, except that the MSI version has a slightly better processor, and 1333 memory instead of 1600 on the PowerPro. Now I'm torn which way to go. I don't really care about the flashy lights on the MSI, and from what I've read the Turbo Boost/Cooler features are mostly just hype. The only other difference I see is the warranty. With PowerPro, I could go directly through Powernotebooks (which seems like it'd be more pleasant and straightforward, not to mention closer to my location, than going through MSI directly, especially since I've heard crappy things about MSI's customer service), but the MSI comes also with an accidental coverage warranty which is appealing.

So torn... >_<

 

Actually, the PowerPro R 11:36 price has been lowered so the difference is slightly larger than when you did this.

You can purchase a better ADP policy that also covers theft at Laptop, Desktop, Tablet, iPad, iPhone and PDA/Smartphone Insurance and Warranty from Safeware.

 

Oh wow, I just did the config a few hours ago, you must have just changed it. Cool, thanks! Pretty sure I'll stick with my initial plan and go with the 11:36.

But while you're here Paladin, I was actually curious about Safeware. I'm a little confused as to how third party insurance like that works. For example, let's say I spilled something on the keyboard and needed to get the part replaced. It says on their FAQ that after making the claim I would send the laptop to one of their Licensed Repair Facilities for repair/replacement. So, does it void my PNB warranty to have Safeware replace/repair a part? Is it possible to send it to PNB for replacement/repair instead?

 

I've talked to SVET over at MSI, he is going to make his next bios tuner able to target the P1 clock state so that it can be used with the barebones unit (since it lacks the turbo button the states are locked to P1 or lower and it can't go into P0).

 

Addressing the question of video editing, it will depend on what editing software (NLE) you are using as to what will make the most difference for you. If you are using Premiere Pro CS5 or 5.5 be sure you have either an Adobe officially certified board, or one that can use the simple text file 'hack' to add most higher end nVIDA boards. You can find details for this in many places on the web. Momory is critical here, so the more you can afford, the better. And the faster the processor, also the better. Suprisingly, the extra CUDA cores on the 570 may not help much (see this very lengthy but worthwhile discussion of both the 'hack' and how render times change with different CUDA cores - Adobe Premiere CS5 and Premiere CS5.5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Unlock Enable MPE Hack Mod Tip).
There are lots of vendors, and everyone has about the same price, so it comes down to service and who you feel you can work with most easily and enjoyably.
For service, I have been regularly and very pleasantly surprised by the depth of knowledge, courtesy, personal attention and value of Power Notebooks and particularly Donald Stratton. Over months of looking at differnet offers and configerations, I have found Power Notebooks to be helpful, patient, and above all fair. Quite possibly other vendors are just the same, but every part of the on-going experiences I have had with Donald Stratton have been encouraging and refreshingly personal.
If you have questions, he is a great source of information, and knows this specific niche of computing very well.
Rich Milne
Expectantly awaiting an R 11:36 any day now!

 

Hey richmilne - I ended up getting the PowerPro with the specs in my sig (though I haven't got a chance to play with it yet, not getting it til next Friday.) I recently found out about the Adobe Nvidia hack and am looking forward to utilizing it. I also use Vegas Pro which isn't quite as demanding as Adobe, so I'm sure that will work splendidly.

I chose to get an SSD + HDD, more memory, and a much better screen, VS a processor upgrade. I think the standard i7 2630qm will do just fine, it would have been too expensive to bump it up to the next one. And I chose PowerNotebooks specifically because of the wonderful customer service I've received (particularly from Donald - he's awesome!), and also because we're not far from each other, so if I ever need to ship anything back and forth it should only take one day (as opposed to a week+ if I had purchased from any of the resellers on the midwest / east coast). I'm also glad I went with a PowerPro instead of a name brand model like Asus or MSI; I think it will be a lot nicer to deal with Donald and his team directly for any warranty related issues than have to go through the big companies (though hopefully I'll never have to send it back!)

The only thing I wish this laptop had is an Expresscard slot so I could get a Firewire adapter for my camera... Firewire ports are tough to find on PC laptops these days. It's a damn shame that there isn't a USB 3 or eSata cable for transferring H/DV video yet! But I've been planning to switch to flash card-based cameras anyway, so I guess this'll be my push to finally do that.

Can't wait to get my machine and test it out! Richmilne be sure to post back with your experiences too!

 

Thanks subliminaltwin - yes, I miss the Firewire as well, but for an audio interface. And the manufacturer of mine said it must be a TI Firewire port, which is even harder to find. My laptop may arrive sometime next week, and I will certainly post then as to how this nearly year-long saga has gone!
If all American companies opperated the way PowerNotebooks does, we might have been in quite a different economy.
rich

PowerPro R 11:36 - on the way
View attachment 72506

 

Wow, a year? That's crazy. And I thought my three-month research journey was excessive.

Indeed - Powernotebooks is the best!

 

Finally received my laptop. It's quite lovely.

My main gripe after a couple hours of playing with it is the keyboard. The left side of it is very loud when I type. I think that's because the WASD keys are meant to be more "flexy" and are built to be beat up for gamers. But I won't be using it for gaming, so I would like to get this annoying clicky sound out of the way. I think I've seen others complain about this either on this thread or the general GT683 thread, and that people take the keyboard off and put some kind of double sided tape underneath or something.

Has anyone done this with the Powerpro? Does it void the warranty to pop off the keyboard and put it back on? Figured I'd come to the forums first before I bugged Donald about it.

 

Double-sided under the keyboard tape fixed that issue for me. They were very skimpy on the tape. It shouldn't void your warranty because 2 RAM slots are found underneath the keyboard as well. I wouldn't take my word to heart, always good to double check.

 

I just sent PNB an email to be sure about the warranty.

Do you just use regular double sided tape, or is there a special kind of tape/adhesive I should use?

 

Actually, the first time I used packaging/sealing tape and rolled it up into a thin 'loop' (double-sided essentially). I made sure to not cover any of the holes as I believe they are intakes for the fan. Any kind will work.

 

Placed an order for a Power Pro 11:36 as well after about a month of researching which gaming laptop to get. My basic requirement would be for it to play Diablo III with ease when it finally gets released, but also wanted a laptop that had specs that would remain at least relevant for other future games even if it can't play them on the highest settings.

The specs i ended up configuring to are:

15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) LED Backlit Matte LCD

30 Day "No Defective Pixel" Guarantee

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5

Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.2~3.1GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads

FREE IC Diamond Thermal Compound applied to CPU + GPU

16GB (4x 4GB) DDR3/1600 CL9 Dual Channel Memory

OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA III Sandforce Solid-State Drive

750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive

RAID 0 Disabled

Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive

Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader: SD/SDHC/SDXC/XD/MSPRO/MS/MM

Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth™ 3.0+HS Combo Card

Smart Li-ion Battery 9-Cell

Windows 7 Premium - 64-Bit w/Full Version OEM + Drivers & Utilities Disks

Full Range 180W Auto Switching AC Adapter

1 Year Parts - Free Ground Shipping - 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support + Lifetime Labor

I'll try to post my personal remarks about the laptop once I finally receive it.

I ended up choosing the PowerPro 11:36 not just because it was the best bang-for-the-buck gaming laptop I could find but also because of the pre or after sales service of powernotebooks.com (Donald in particular) has given the best support I've EVER experienced whether online or offline and in ANY industry. The communication was perfect and they really know what they're doing. I would have to agree with richmilne's comments about wishing other companies operated like powernotebooks.com

Hopefully this laptop will last me a few years before i need to upgrade. But when i do, I know I'll probably be getting it again from powernotebooks.com



By psychon at 2011-11-19

 

Just ordered my first gaming pc from Power Notebooks! I was heavily leaning toward a Sager before I had the pleasure of dealing with Donald from Power Notebooks, but he was able to convince me otherwise. Before speaking with Donald, I had never even heard of the Power Pro 11:36. My new machine should hopefully arrive within two weeks. I cant say enough good things about my experience so far with PNB, and Donald. For anyone who might be considering some variation of the MSI 16F2, I would highly recommend ordering from Power Notebooks!