Ryzeki's MSI GX660R Review

Introduction
Welcome to my review for the MSI GX660R! If you read my past review, you will notice that not too soon ago I was an Asus G51J owner (pretty happy one by the way) and suddenly made the jump for this new MSI. If some of you even remember, I was kind of against changing my laptop because I felt the jump from GTX260m to HD5870m was not that big. Boy was I wrong. And I am very glad about it!

A 15 incher with an ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870? That's the first thing that will pop on most people's heads. If you research for a bit, you will find that this particular GPU is not only powerful, but it is mostly found on 17inchers because of the heat it can produce. Naturally, most people would be skeptical to buy a 15.6 inch notebook with such a high end GPU, specially since MSI also has a model with the radeon 5850 and moderate temps. What I can spoil you right now, before reading further, is the fact that this machine has an absolutely amazing GPU cooling solution.

I got my awesome new laptop from the best resellers out there, GentechPC. Like my previous experiences with them, my process was smooth and fast. Ken Lee (a representative of Gentech, which is also a member of this community and is available for anything you need!) helped me throughout the whole process, and kept me updated regarding my order. Personally, and from experience, Ken and Gentech provide the best experience from resellers I have seen so far in the market. I heavily recommend them!

Coming back to the review! So what made me change my mind and order this laptop? I wanted a full upgrade in performance, and from what MSI spec'd on this machine, I was sure expecting a lot. I am glad to say my expectations were blown away.


-Specs as ordered (Changed driver from blu-ray to regular DVD and added IC thermal compound):
CPU: Intel Core i7 Processor 740QM @ 1.73Ghz – 2.93Ghz (IC thermal compound)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Chipset: Intel PM55
Memory: 6GB DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz
Screen: 15.6” 1920x1080 (16:9 ratio) WLED backlit AUO15ED screen
Video Card: ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870 1GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 2x 320GB 7200RPM SATA (Pre-Configured in RAID-0)
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
Wireless: Intel WiFi link 1000 BGN 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Autio: 2.1 Sound system by Dynaudio. Yes, this is WORTH mentioning.
Warranty: 3 years standar factory warranty + first 1 year accidental damage warranty
I/O connection: 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, eSATA, HDMI, S/PDIF, Line in, Line out, Mic in, VGA, Ethernet, card reader, PC Express card slot.


- What's in the Box:
The machine comes in a well designed box, sturdy build and gaming oriented design/logos around. The contents include the standard manuals and reference guides, along with drivers/software discs, AC adapter and battery. Sadly this machine does not have any extras in the form a mouse etc, but that hardly matters when you stop to consider what you just bought: One of the most powerful 15 inchers!


-Design and Build Quality
Coming from an Asus G51, I immediately recognized the overall size and chassis resemblance of the Asus G50/G51 series and that isn't exactly bad. Aesthetics are very nice, with a black to gray glossy finish that thankfully is not as "dirt magnet" as I thought, probably due to the colors chosen for the palmrest. Pictures do not give justice to the look of this machine as it looks way more "serious" in person (with the LEDs off, of course heh). The Red color around the speakers is actually metallic so it does not stand out tremendously at all, and feels in line with the overall look of the machine. The only weird thing is the LCD cover which I think it looks weird. I don't hate it, but I don't particularly like it that much. At least it is all black and looks less "Look at me!" without fancy designs etc.

The machine is sturdy. the built is entirely of plastic, or so it seems. There isn't much flex, and the whole chassis feels strong. The only place that seems way weaker and has considerable flex is the cover, but it feels around the same as my G51J. I think that a support in the mid section of the cover would have made this a bit better but it is not bad at all, nor something to worry about.


- Screen
I know there is some concern with the screen. Let's get to the facts first. The screen has mediocre viewing angles, both vertical and horizontal, but vertical angles suffer the most. What this means is that when you tilt the screen or move it sideways, you will start to notice color distortion. Additionally, the screen has low contrast compared to other gaming machines.

However, it is very sharp and of quite high resolution. The brightness settings allow for incredibly bright display, or quite low light viewing. Using display settings augmenting color saturation, the contrast/image GREATLY improves to a good display, leaving only the low viewing angles as the bad point.

An important note: Viewing angles won't affect you much, the user, as you will most probably see the screen directly to it's sweet spot 99% of the time. The issue would come when others look at the screen from moderate angles. When watching the screen from a sweet spot, you will probably start to see colors begin to wash on either the bottom or top depending on the angle. When gaming this does not affect because the angle is not that prominent, but when watching a movie or something with heavy emphasis in white/dark constrasts, you will notice dark/blacks becoming grayish. Using the screen at 30% or so brightness (with FN+up/down arrows) in well lit rooms, you will have great colors, ink-like blacks and all, but sadly the viewing angles don't improve that much.

My take? the screen works for what it is, even if mediocre. It looks sharp, it is functional, produces decent colors with saturation enabled, and is perfectly bright when used on very bright places/outside. If screen is VERY important to you, then you WILL be disappointed. If not, you will most likely enjoy it for what it is, specially the resolution. I find it pleasant looking during the day, and only disappointing when playing at night in a dark room, when the brightness does make the blacks and everything more grayish.

Note: the high brightness does make blacks look grayish when watching the screen in a dark/low light room or area. When using in normal daylight, blacks are iindeed blacks, and colors look great.


-Keyboard

Build, distribution, material texture are all well implemented. Typing is easy, keystrokes feel good with just enough feedback to type quickly. I have noticed a tiny bit of missed key strokes sometimes, but I haven't identified the problem yet. This is by far one of the best laptop keyboards I have used, wht the keyboard area has little to no flex. material used and texture allows for a clean looking keyboard all the time.

The downside? it is not backlit. To be honest, I don't care about it anymore. When I first heard of the lack of backlit keyboard, I was adamant about it being a significant downgrade, but the look, feel and overall quality of the keyboard allowed me to forget such missing feature. After using this machine for a while now, I gotta say, I don't even miss it. It may be that the brightness of the screen help iluminate the keyboard just enough, or realizing that I rarely used the feature before but I honestly don't mind the lack of it.

coming from the Asus G51J, this keyboard provides the same distribution and size but with different texture and little flex. Keystrokes have more feedback that the Asus keyboard, and are more akin to the G73 keyboard feel.

The flex the keyboard shows is mostly located from the mid section. I personally don't notice much unless I type and see the keyboard. Which I don't so at first I didn't know there was flex at all.

basically, it is a keyboard that the only thing preventing it from being perfect, it's the lack of backlit.


-Performance and User Experience:
Stock performance is incredible and on par with your expectations. The machine performs well in single and multitasks. Game performance is great thanks to the small bump in CPU and the superb ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870. Additionally, MSI includes its own version of overclocking functionality with the push of a single button. This is specially great for those that are afraid of overclocking, as it provides a small performance boost for no cost.

The best feature though, is the capability of fan control, and the turbofan feature. At the touch of a button, you can summon the maximum speed of you fan to keep things real cool. When gaming, specially with headphones, you won't even hear the fan that much and it ensures you complete cool temps while gaming.

From the looks of it, the Turbo feature overclocks the CPU to 1.812ghz, so it's a decent bump for a simple button. Some games seem to gain 1-2fps, some are unaffected, some actually loose 1-2fps of performance. The reason is still uknown to me. And personally, I rarely use it.

Gaming is possible on 1920x1080 res, at least from all the games I have tried so far.

Windows Experience Index : 5.9 (slowest is HDD)

These numbers don't mean much. Even if the laptop is branded as 5.9, all components are fairly stronger on the 7.1+ scale.

3dmark06 stock CPU/GPU(stock drivers): 12746 at 1280x1024.
Divided as following:
SM2.0 5197
SM3.0 6008
CPU 3377


3dmark06 Turbo on, OC 900/1030(Cat 10.8 drivers): 13927 at 1280x1024.
Divided as following:
SM2.0 5663
SM3.0 6708
CPU 3564


3D mark Vantage Turbo On OC 900/1030 Cat 10.8 drivers:
Score P9865
CPU 12046
GPU 9304

SEE BOTTOM OF REVIEW TO FIND THE MAX OBTAINED SCORES FOR THESE BENCHES!

Some Game results!

Batman Arkham Asylum
Settings:All highest enabled, vsync triple buffering, 1920x1080
Min: 39fps, max: 60, average: 58fps
comments: Benchmark ran smooth, and gameplay seems and feels very smooth. I haven't played much with this rig, but the chapter I played, went completely without problems and ran like a champ completely maxed out, and looked gorgeous.


Killing Floor
Settings:All high, 1920x1080, 2x AF and AA
Min: 30fps, max: 60, average: 50fps
comments: The game is not that demanding at first, but with increasing number of allies and foes, the fps dip a bit (mostly due to the vsync capping fps at 30, 45 and 60). For the most part, it runs completely smooth.


League of Legends
Settings:All high, 1920x1080, vsync
Min: 54fps, max: 60, average: 58fps
comments: This is probably the least taxing game so far. Looks good, and plays smooth. I haven't tried all maxed out in a full game, but the little moment I tried, I noticed no difference from high settings.... except fps dropped a bit at some point but recovered. My advice is to keep things to high, as some fps drops are also caused by the game programming itself (a bit lack of polish I guess).


Demigod
Settings:All high, vsync, 1920x1080, 0x AA, 0x AF, CPU O/C
Min: 28fps, max: 70 average: 48fps
comments: The game runs quite good without vsync. It seems that with vsync you can get your fps halved to 30 and that sucks when playing at 60fps then 30fps drops. Without vsync you get quite an enjoyable experience in all high. this is about 10-12fps higher on average, from my G51J.


Battlefield Bad Company 2
Settings: All high, shadows medium, no AA, 4x AF, 1920x1080, vsync enabled
Min: 25fps, max: 60, average: 50fps
comments: This was a major improvement from my previous laptop. Same settings, my G51J with GTX260m would muster a max fps of 48, with average of 25fps. With the Radeon I practically run 100% faster on average! I am able to enjoy high settings at max res, something I could only dream with my GTX260m! Single player runs a bit slower, between 30-60 due to several smoke effects and crumbling buildings etc. Crumbling buildings hits fps hard for 1 second. On multiplayer, I have enjoyed consistently high fps.

Notes: Game runs well enough on all High in both DX9 and DX10. All high and even HBAO on produce around 30-45 fps which are smooth enough to play. For multiplayer I use All high, medium shadows on DX9 for max performance with great visuals.


Crysis
Settings: All high, medium physics, medium volumetric effects, medium water, 1920x1080, no AA/AF
Min: 23fps, max:60, average: 33fps
comments: This is another dream come true for me. To be able to play crysis on practically high settings, at 1920x1080 and actually be playable. Using this config, I have run past 60% of the game with consistent playable frames, and overall a good experience with great visuals. If it serves for something, my GTX260m could muster an average of about 20 fps with the same settings. Hell, this thing runs Crysis at high settings, like my GTX260 ran it at medium same res haha.

note: Using all high reduces average to 28-30fps, still completely playable, but I rather have a bit extra fps If you OC your card, you can play all high with perfectly playable fps! (except the later levels, which seem to lag every now and then due to bad optimization regardless of your config).


FFXIV Benchmark
LOW (1280x720 res) Score: 3696
High (1920x1080 res) Score: 2078
comments: The game looks gorgeous, and actually ran great. on LOW, it seemed to run at very fluid framerate no matter what happened, while High seemed to be around 30fps perhaps a bit less, but still fluid and consistent. I think it's safe to say that this MSI laptop handles FF14 without issues, and possibly maxed out. In comparison, my GTX260m looked quite choppy on high and, around 30fps on low.


Borderlands
Settings: All high and enabled, 2x AF, 1920x1080
Min: 20fps, max: 62, average: 40fps
comments: This is another game where I saw a major improvement over my previous laptop. However, I have mixed feelings from the performance I got. Using all high enabled it runs consistenly well but it has some random dips to 20 fps with some enemies when very upclose, and also with a couple of effect also up close. when disabling Ambient Occlusion, and Flare outs, the average bumps up to near 60fps, but the dips to 20fps remain every now and then.

It could be the processor, but I don't know.

UPDATE: Got lost planet 2 bench working. I just needed to download an update for DirectX. I will try to upload the pics tomorrow, but I will leave the DX9 here.

Lost Planet 2
Settings: Test A, 1920x1080, no AA, all high, DX9
Min:28fps, Max:56fps, avg: 40fps
Comments: Lost planet 2 looks quite good graphically. I noticed that DX9 still looked great and performed amazingly well. The whole test seemed completely smooth, in part thanks to the motion blur. DX9 allows maxed settings with ease.

Pic for DX9

Sadly, the same cannot be said for DX11. Using DX11 with no DX11 (weird eh?) I got an average of 36fps. With DX11 on low, it was reduced to 28ish, medium to 22, and high to 18 or less fps. Visually, I didn't notice much between low and high at all. Tessalation was there when you enabled wireframe, but without wireframe, you would be hardpressed to find the extra visual power for the huge drop in fps. I think right now Tessalation is just being implemented to be able to say "we have tessalation on!" instead of actually using it in a worthwhile way.

Reducing resolution does help a lot. just for kicks, on 720p res all high medium DX11, the average goes back up to near 35fps.

I accept any request for benchmarks/games but it will take time before I aquire the game etc.



-Battery life
When looking at a gaming notebook, battery life is usually not important, because of the high power components it requires. Coming from several gaming notebooks already, I was used to 1 and a half hour batteries.

I am happy to report that thanks to the 9 cell battery, you can enjoy 2 to 3 hours of battery life from normal usage! Exploiting the super battery efficient settings, you can probably reach 3+ hours easily. My current average is 2 hours and 30 mins with moderate usage (no gaming).

Definitely a good point for the GX660 laptop.


-Heat and noise:
This part is still in progress, but the little I can tell you, and proudly so, is that this machine is cool. How cool? under 78C at load, on auto fan settings. Want super cool temperatures? Kick the Turbo Fan on, and watch your max temps reach around 68-70C depending on your ambient temps and games!

I will add Furmark Xtreme tests, as well as additional screenshots with 3dmark runs and 68C temps.

Every single gaming notebook I have ever owned, has had temperatures on the 90C range. Specially my last G51J laptop, equipped with the GTX260m, reaching up to 97C while normal gaming, underclocked... So yeah, I wasn't expecting such superb temps.

I am testing with different overclock settings and gaming. Right now I have successfully game'd at 800/1030 for hours (from stock 700/1000) but when I tried playing some games at 840/1070, I ended up crashing with a screen full of black/white bars and all frozen. My veredict was that the RAM couldn't take it, as temps were around 73C.

As a note, I only overclock and game using turbo fan on. Without turbo fan, I have seen temps on the 83C range, and I prefer to keep things cool. Keep in mind that these temps are with overclocking on. On stock, I haven't seen anything above the 70s range.


-Sound System

One of the highlights of the MSI GX660(R) is the inclusion of Dynaudio sound system. The system is made of a 2.1 setup (2 speakers, 1 subwoofer) and tweaked software with presets for different types of audio. Why is a laptop sound system important to mention? Because these speakers are, bar none, the best laptop speakers I have ever heard. What makes them special is not only the fact that they are loud enough, nor that they have a subwoofer on, but the crystal-like quality of the sound. You can hear everything in such an authentic way. To be honest, after experiencing my speakers, I rarely use my headphones anymore, I need to get better ones now so that I can feel the same experience these great speakers give.

Any other laptop I have ever owned had decent to mediocre sound. This one went leaps and bounds above to have a superb sound experience for 15.6incher laptopps. Props for MSI and Dynaudio for this!

-Warranty

This is my first MSI notebook and thankfully it seems to come problem free from factory. So far the only crash I have had, I attribute it to the overclock. The stock warranty is 2 years standard parts and labor, and the first year accidental warranty.

I haven't had to use the warranty yet, thankfully, but I hear that the main beef with MSI is that they charge you the shipping costs when you send your machine. This is a bit bothersome, because prices could be up to 60+dlrs to get your machine fixed. I can only hope that MSI grows more as a company with these great products so that the offered warranty can improve as well.

-Conclusion
This is an amazing machine. From the specs to build quality even aesthetics, overall performance make this a superb deal for the price! I greatly recommend this machine to any gamers out there, that want to spend just enough money on a rig capable of high performance gaming on the go. The only bad points of this computer is the screen itself, but that isn't THAT bad in the end. But for the price and specs, it is more than worth it.


Get this if:
-You want to run games very well, at a reasonable price.
-You want value from your purchase (in extra specs/ports etc).
-You want excellent sound quality from your laptop.
-You want a gaming laptop with 2+hours of battery life.

Avoid if:
-You want the best possible performance (there are still higher spec'd machines for more $$$).
-You need great mobility (size is on the limit before being too big).


Thanks for taking the time to read my review! Feel free to comment on anything you want regarding the laptop, and ask any questions you want! I will try to answer ASAP.

UPDATE: Due to a severe lack of free time, I will leave this review in its current form. I know it lacks pictures, but I consider the review to be good enough to help users decide on this fantastic machine. Thanks to everyone that gave me valuable feedback, all my readers and of course all the participants of this thread.

LAST UPDATE: I changed my machine for a new MSI 1762 GT70 sporting a GTX680m as of this update. I decided to update this review to leave my last and best benches I had with my GX660R after upgrading the processor to 920xm and overclocking de GPU. Originally I had plans of upgrading the GPU to an HD7970m but the opportunity to change the full machine came and I took it.

HD5870m Clocks 920/1100 with CAT 12.1, CPU Core i7 920xm @ 3ghz
3dMark11: P2792 (GPU: 2541) || Vantage: P11186 (GPU: 9980) || 3dmark06: 16581 || PCMark 7: 4220

 

Great, you're guilt-tripping me into getting started on my optimization/cooling guide.

Heh. Ryzeki makes a mention on similarities between the Asus G50/G51 series. They're pretty close in size.


Good read, by the way. On my own machine I notice Killing Floor tends to cry in pain when there's a lot of particles--grenade smoke, flames, etc--but otherwise runs very smooth. Looking forward to the finalized review.

 

I do like those lights on the front, they look a bit like break lights.

 

Thanks man, and yeah, killing floor seems to take some hits every now and then. Try disabling vsync, it may help. I will test with different settings but the ones I currently use (mix of different high/highest) give me mostly smooth performance and very few fps drops (until there are 120 enemies around).

Man, I am soooo sleepy right now. 4AM here and just trying to please the masses

 

Yeah, once I got the machine I thought that the LEDs didn't look that bad. I actually liked the front ones so I am considering leaving those on.

 

Ryzeki! man you are my hero.. Great review thanks for sharing with us and for being awake till 4am ;-).. I cant afford to pay 1.6k for a laptop so am thinking of buying the i5, 720p gx660.. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks for the review!

 

How big is it? Does it fit in 15.6'' bags?

 

Great review!

 

Hey thanks..Can't wait to get mine. Did you see much performance boost with raid o.

 

Considering its size compared to the G51, you'd be hard pressed to fit it into a 15-inch bag. I had to use a 17-inch satchel for my G51.

 

great review man thanks a lot. Can you go more in depth on the sound performance?

 

Great job!
+ rep

 

ryzeki thanks for the best review i have seen for MSI GX660R so far & great job *_^

I am really afraid of crashing issue in a bunch of games such as, Lost Planet3 as you cited dude. hope it will be fixed soon

my question: do you think there is a defective issue in regards of graphics card (ATI 5870*) or do you think it is a flaw in a CPU processor which causes crashing!

I want to buy it asap, but not before i hear from MSI owners confirm to us. what is that the main crashing issue looks like to surprisngly makes some games to stop working?

Otherwise, it is 1000 times better than asus g73, Lenovo Thinkpad and so.

hope GX660 owners tell me if the crashing issue is related for the ATI 5870 graphics card, which means, to be upgraded for the latest updates for its own drive!

I look forward to hear from soon you guys

thank you in advance.
peace

 

There really is no crashing. Everything has run flawless so far. I'm not sure why ryzuki (is that how you spell it?) had issues with Lost plaenet 2, but its probably driver issues....

 

Thanks for the support I think that regardless of the GX660 version you buy, you will be satisfied with it's performance. The 720p screen one will allow you to play games on max settings easier with better fps!

It's a great laptop

You are welcome I hope to finish it soon.

The size is more on the 17incher side. Newer 16:9 bakcpacks will probably fit very tightly, but your best bet is to go 17incher to ensure you have plenty of room.

Thanks

I wouldn't say "Much" of a performance boost. I did notice things tend to go a more smoothly when moving/opening files, but other than that, performance is not that different from stand alone HDDs. An SSD would be a great upgrade.

 

Thanks man, and yeah I will later today. The sound, and what makes it awesome, is not the loudness itself, but the fidelity, crystal-like quality. The bass also adds extra niceness even though its a rather small bass.

For laptop speakers, they sure pack incredible quality. For reference, I have a hard time convincing myself to use my headphones because I like how my speaker sound way more haha

Thanks What will you do now? You sold yours right? will you wait for G53 or get another MSI GX660?

Hey thanks for reading and your support! The issue is 100% driver issue. It's the typical windows stopped responding etc. I think that Cat 10.8 might have an issue with it but I am not sure. Sadly I tried the bench just as soon as I changed drivers so I don't know if stock would work.

All other games have worked flawlessly. I have also read some people on other forums have the same issue with LP2 benchmark, some with DX11, some with DX9. I guess I will roll back drivers to check it up.

I love this machine

Yeah I am sure it's just drivers. I changed to CAT 10.8 before trying the benchmark and never got to make it work. The game just stopps responding before loading. No other bench/game has given me issues at all.

 

How is the subwoofer and dynaudio speakers?? Is it the best in the world as they say? And does the keyboard exhibit flex??

 

The speakers are indeed incredible. More than just loudness (because they are decently loud) it's the quality of the sound. The small bass does help the sound .making it a very enjoyable experience with crystal like sound. You can even distinguish perfectly vocals from the music!

The keyboard, as far as I can tell, has zero flex. It feels very study and in place.

 

I have not crashed on anything as of yet, even with clocks bumped up to 840/1050 and using Cat 10.8.

The Lost Planet 2 benchmark works perfectly fine for me. The main difference between me and Ryzeki is that I clean installed.

 

I will try uninstalling some things and reinstalling the bench. And well my crash was with 840/1070 hehe, 840/1050 worked for me so far.

 

Yea, I think i will do a reinstall too. How did you do it? Do i just use a burned backup CD and the driver disk provided, or should i download a legit w7 iso and use that along with the supplied drivers? Main reason I want to do it is for some of the ssd setting and bloat ware.

 

I downloaded the Win7 ISO and reinstalled with that. I then used the drivers disc before upgrading all the drivers I could get my hands on.

For some reason I couldn't authenticate my Win7 license online, so I had to do it by phone. Otherwise, all worked well.

EDIT: On a humorous note, I seem to have lost one of the screws on my bottom panel. Haha.

 

Oh man, That happened with me with my G51J. I was so angry at the moment because I lost a single screw the very first time I oppened it haha.

But don't worry, 1 screw is nothing, and you can probably order replacements or something.

 

I have ordered my baby MSI GX660R. wish to receive that beast soon

a question occurs on my mind. when i customized my laptop through gentechpc, i had chosen Intel Advanced-N 6200 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN card though its a way different than the new Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 which supports a fourth generation of cellular wireless standards..

Hmm, Is it possible to swap 6200 wireless card by 6250 in future? thanks

 

My GX660r crashes even when I'm surfing the web. You can count me as one that got a DOA unit and there aren't many owners to begin with; That can't be a good sign. I think it is related to defective radeon 5870's being shipped with these laptops.

Now I've been without the use of my new laptop for 4 days now and I haven't even been able to return it due to the long weekend. This has really ruined my whole week.

 

You have the right to return it to the reseller and get a full refund or demanding a replacement for your own dude... best of luck to you.

-----
Can someone tell me if its possible to replace the current glossy screen to matty one.. in terms of the fact that msi uses AUO15ED for the screen.. anyone have an idea where i can buy these 15.6 matte FHD screen so it must suit my GX660R properly!!

thank you.

 

Quick question since the memory is not in triple channel mode what is the performance hit if any? If you were to take out the third memory module and run in dual channel mode would the performance increase?

 

That sucks man, but the number of units right now it's so small that we can't say it's a bad sign or just a single lemon. We need at least over 30 owners to get an idea.

Return your unit and get either a full refund or a replacement. Best of luck to you mate!

Hmm, you mean running 4GB in dual channel? I doubt there will be any change in performance as it has 6GB running in dual channel mode already.

 

Welcome to the club

I don't know much about the wifi cards etc, so maybe you can ask Gentech directly, I am sure they will be more helpful than me.

 

They are miniPCIe cards so should be pretty easy to swap.

 

Do you think I should ask for free return shipping?

 

I am a RL friend of Ryzeki, and we both ordered this laptop from GentechPC. I must say I am absolutely taken aback by it. I actually did a really big jump from my previous rig which was a G51VX, it had a centrino 2 core but it also had the Nvidia GTX260 which was a good thing back then but the processor was on the slow side even with the turbo boost. Right now I've been extatic with this one. I tested Resident Evil 5 all on max settings and have been getting an average of 62fps, max 78fps and as low as 48 but I only noticed this happening only once and it never again dropped beyond 55.

I also tested it with the other game I play a lot which is Fallout 3 GOTY and so far the game has ran absolutely smooth, no framerate dropps whatsoever and even on the enemy or effect heavy scenes it's ran absolutely smooth. Saint's Row 2 also runs pretty nice, on my previous G51VX I had to go down with medium settings and a small resolution to get it to a good framerate especially while driving, it was a nightmare. On the MSi, this is not a problem at all, the game runs at high settings and great display resolution with next to no problems at all. I'd definitely recommend this laptop to everyone.

 

Nice to meet you! Glad you are having great results with the gx660r it's one hell of a machine not just spec wise, but also the sound and other stuff it offers

 

I just ordered my MSI GX660R-060 before the Labor Day weekend from XoticPC.com
I got the 80GB SSD and the 320GB HDD's
I also did the i7 740QM and 6GB of 1333Mhz
The biggest thing that I'm worried about is the screen Quality!! I actually just returned my fully loaded $3200 Sager 8120 18.4" gaming laptop because it was nowhere near as powerful as I expected it to be for over 3G's. I decided to save some $$ and get a good 15 incher

 

Is it possible to buy a different LED screen. I've seen them online for only like $130. If anybody buys a better LCD screen please let me know. I wonder if the 15.6 Sager NP8690 will bolt right up to the GX660R. I heard that screen is awesome!!

 

screen isn't too bad, just the viewing angles are crappy. Lol you pretty much have the same config as me, except I have the intel 6200. You could get a new screen, but it's pretty hard to find one that would fit exactly, I don't think anyone has ever switched the screen before...

 

Hey man, welcome to the forums! Nice to see you around

If you want you can. I think it's more important to get either a full refund or a replacement than the shipping. I'd do whatever is faster for me. Good luck bro!

Agreed. This laptop gives me this feeling off... this feeling of being the definitive thing. It has everything. If it had a superior screen, I would slap anyone that didn't buy this

Nice config man. You did the sane thing to do! I would never pay over 3Gs for something that does not have the performance to back the price up.

Welcome to the club!

Sure, modding is always possible. I mean, the screen is decent, but if you absolutely can't live with the screen you can always buy another laptop screen of the same size that fits the bezel and you are good to go.

In the end, you can always just use a different external monitor, they tend to be superior to most laptop displays anyways.

Agreed about the screen. I wonder if I should get and intel 6200. I haven't had problems with my wireless so I never considered it.

 

Dear Ryzeki,

My config beats your config.

Love, Forge.

PS: Let the e-peen wars commence.


Internet wise, it's a toss-up. I manage a NAS (DNS-321 is a godly device) and I'm transfering gigabyte folders all the time, so I wanted the extra power of the Intel card. For pure gaming I don't think the stock card going to be much of a problem.

 

Forge how's your optimization guide comming?
Did you take any photos of what's under the hood?

 

Uh, slow going. I'm off tomorrow and Wednesday so I'll try and motivate my lazy to do something.

Preliminary testing shows that I can put low-profile copper blocks on the heatpipes, though.

 

Could somebody tells me how is the HD 720 cam looks like thanks

 

Umm if you mean image quality, it's actually quite good

 

Ryzeki, I probly wouldn't worry about the 6200.I just got it cause I like to make sure I'm getting the best internet connection possible lol, especially for gaming and stuff, even though the upgrade might not help me at all, it gives me more peace of mind you could say... But, if you do find a cheap legit card, I would go for it... Especially if you travel with the laptop, it might be the difference between getting internet and not. However, if you want to go extreme internet, pick up one of these for longer N ranges: Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW Best Long Range USB Wireless Adapter. 802.11N/G/B. w/Jack & Antenna

or one of these for longer G ranges: Alfa AWUS036H 1000mW USB Wireless WiFi Adapter + Antenna. Long-Range. Upgrade from 500mW

They are pretty amazing as far as range, and have given me internet from various hotels on numerous occasions

 

Actually I forgot to mention in my original post, I did get an Intel 6200
I had a Intel 6300 on my Sager 8120. Great wireless I must tell you. The only game I play religiously is BF2. So this lappy will easily play it.
Here's a question for ya!! Is the SPDIF out an Optical or Coaxial??

Also when my laptop arrives how do I check to make sure I have the intel 6200 wireless??

 

Just go to device manager and check there.

 

O duh! I'm such a noob. Lmao

 

Hey guys,

Do you know any website comparing the performances of the wireless adapter? Since I bought mine (Gx640) I struggle to connect to my wireless altough there was no issue with my old laptop!
I have the Ralink RT3090, does any know if it would be worth changing for something more powerful (in term of range)?

Thanks

 

So, took Furmark out for a spin again. Drilled out bottom panel, Tuniq-TX4 on the GPU and CPU dies, stock thermal pads. Clocks at 840/1050. Ambient was 75F and fell to 74.5F at the end of the run. As always, passive cooling with Xpad and fan set to auto.

Maxed at 89C, but that was literally for a second. It hovered between 87-88 for the vast majority of the run.

 

I guess you should try an intel card, 5300 is pretty cheap and works well.
Another thing, update the driver and increase the throughput if you can (some settings somewhere).