Received My MSI 16L-G-1080 Today, Questions and Concerns

If you have one you are going through the set up process on anyway, I wouldn't mind if you did some testing to see what it takes to get that hotkey to work. I know this was an issue when I got my laptop and I posted about it in the owners thread and was able to get a driver that solved everything for me, I may just have to dig back through there. I will continue some testing myself today and this weekend with different drivers, try digging around the owners thread and try SCM.

I do not have SCM installed, but I am 99% sure I did not have it installed on my previous install of Windows, but I will install it today to test when I get a chance, but all other hot keys are working in terms of audio/screen brightness and other fn+fx keys, so idk. I thought this was a built in key combo to Windows 10 now on all their laptops that just works, which makes me think it's some version of synaptics causing the issue.

This laptop is more than good enough to last you many many years to come playing AAA games on high/ultra and getting 100+ fps. An 8700k would be nice, but it is adding 2 cores to the CPU which will be increasing temps and there is already tweaking involved usually to get this machine to run as cool and optimally as possible due to the hardware in it, and Volta GPUs will not be out at least for another year most likely, I think they typically come out with new cards about every 2 years? And I want to say we're a little over a year on the current gen? I wouldn't be expecting new GPUs for a while and probably even longer for laptop equivalent ones. Aside from the 8700k which just came out, and is sold out everywhere and can't even be bought right now, this is essentially one of the best gaming desktops you could build without a 1080TI or spending a stupid amount of money on enthusiast level CPUs which may not even be any better than the 7700k for gaming. You can't go wrong with this laptop especially if you don't currently have anything to game on, and for all we know when new GPUs come out, we may be able to replace the ones in our computer and upgrade them so there's always that, granted it will be a bit expensive. If you do decide to go with one, just read up and try and get as much info as you can in the owners lounge. There is a lot of very good and useful information in there, a lot of people posting about their experiences with it and the vendors, tweaks to improve the system and improve performance etc. Buy a cooling pad if you will be using it at home as your main PC/gaming PC and be prepared to potentially tweak some stuff yourself to get everything running optimally and cooling to be as efficient as possible as there is only so much that HID or woodz can do before it gets to you to take care of that ahead of time. I'd recommend one of the 2 of them to purchase from.

 

Getting this back on topic, I got everything up and running and did some benchmarking. Not too shabby if I say so myself.

Unigine Heaven on Ultra/Extreme @ 2560x1440 w/ 8x AA



PC Mark 10 with stock config




3D Mark with stock config

 

I might have to call up support tomorrow unless someone on here knows. But I seem to be having some Thunderbolt issues and I'm not sure if it is Firmware related or my USB hub is the problem. But basically I am not using the Thunderbolt on this laptop for anything at this time, and I didn't have enough USB ports to hook up all of my accessories. So I picked up a TP-Link USB Hub ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SCX6I8A) to place behind the laptop and have a USB C to USB 3.0 Micro B cable I am using to run it off of the Thunderbolt port. However, very randomly the keyboard times out (or something like that) and the lights flash on it for the number lock and whatever key I press when it happens repeats about 9 times before it stops. I was going to update the thunderbolt firmware but on this site, I can't see which one I should get. https://thunderbolttechnology.net/updates It's basically advising you to go to laptops manufacturer and download it from them. I'm guessing MSI would be mine, but is all firmware for MSI created equally? Can I download it for any laptop that has it and it should work for mine?


Edit: Another thing, I noticed that I cannot create a custom fan curve using MSI Afterburner with this laptop. Is there another way that I can control the fan speeds? I have the laptop shut mostof the time using an external screen for gaming and it's a big of a nuisance to open it to hit the max speed button. I've always had a custom curve but I guess these mobile gpu's don't allow that?

 

That must not be it then.

If it helps at all mine works fine and here's the synaptics version I'm using.

 

Welp, got another one for ya guys as I can't seem to figure it out.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/850-evo-m2-msata-series-120gb-1tb#fullspecs

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIW1XG - INTERFACE M.2 (B+M)

I picked up this drive 500GB version for pretty cheap (sub $120) but after I installed it into my second m.2 slot the laptop is not recognizing it. Do you know if they both cannot be active at the same time or why the laptop isn't picking it up? Compared to the 960 evo it does have two slots which looks like a different format but I figured and m.2 is a m.2 and as long as it fits it should show up to use? Checked the disk management and it only shows the 960Evo and the 2TB Firecuda (which btw the performance is very underwhelming, don't ever think about getting it to store and play games off of):




Also checked diskpart and it only showed this as well:


The only thing I can think of is maybe I installed is backwards, but I had the chips facing up like the diagram showed and the 960 evo chips are also facing up. Maybe I'll try flipping it around to see how that goes.

 

Check your BIOS to ensure that all SATA ports are enabled. One of the great features of the Prema mod is that you have the ability to selectively configure these slots individually.

Solid-state hybrid drives are only really effective as boot devices because they "learn" which files are accessed most often and place them in the flash memory cache. A standard 7200 RPM spinner works better for mass storage.

 

Looks like that was it! Went into the BIOS and enabled all the sata stuff and it showed up.


Yeah I'm most likely going to get a 2.5" SSD or regular 2.5" 10,000rpm HDD to put in there in place of this Firecuda... Live and Learn. Lol

Edit: Scratch that I don't think they make 7mm 10k rpm hdd's lol. Will most likely just have to go with the 7200rpm or another ssd

 

I know they do make 10k rpm 2.5" drives but I am not 100% sure if it will actually fit into the F5 or not, however now you have given me something to think about and look into. Although at that point for those prices I would almost rather just bite the bullet and spend a bit more for an SSD.

Not to go off topic but where did you find such a deal on that M.2 drive or was it a local thing or a friend you got it from? Been thinking about a nvme or 2.5" SSD for my new desktop.

 

The 1 TB M.2 drive that houses my Steam library cost less than $180 because I bought it used from Amazon Warehouse deals when they were running a coupon for an extra 20% off. If you're OK with buying from private parties, the hardwareswap subreddit is a great resource.