Ryzeki's MSI GX660R Review

Ugh, Newegg and their stupid policies. Took them 3 days to tell me that they can't ship to an address other than the one on my CC unless it's added to a note section. Can't do that.... Hopefully phone verification will work today, getting frustrated, especially after paying $30 for express packing/shipping. Anyone else ever run into the same issue with other companies, or newegg even?

 

lol see previous post.

 

Lol.. Well, finally got the issue resolved this morning, shipped out at noon from California. From purolators site, should be here tomorrow, but most likely monday.. One more weekend of waiting

 

Which side do you live on? If you're near the West Coast you should get it next day if you chose next day shipping.

 

Hey guys !

I'm new to this forum and I'm quite surprised by all the welcomed infos you've been gathering and sharing about the new love of my life : the MSI GX660R

However, I've been asking myself a few things, including :

* Iv'e got to choose between a 1100€ (~1320$ I believe ?) model with 1x500gb / 7.2k and a 1150€ model with 2x250gb / 5.4k

The HDD being the only difference between these two, I'm wondering what would be better ? RAID 0 with slower HDD or no RAID but faster HDD ?

Plus, because I would tend to buy the single HDD one, would it be possible to add another HDD without removing the warranty ? I'm currently owner of a GX620 and the sticker was preventing me from opening the pc at all... Even tho it has been cut a few months in the warranty period (but fortunately I've never had any main problem with this wonderful laptop.)

If I could do so, what would you suggest me to do ? Buy a little SSD or another 7.2k HDD in order to make it RAID 0 ? What would be the impact on the battery life if i added another HDD ?

* At last, I'm going to sell my old GX620 to a friend of mine, but I wouldn't want to ask for more than it is worth. The laptop has a P8400, 9600M GT, 4go RAM, 1680*1050 15.4" mat screen and 320gb 5.4k

It has been used as much as it is possible to, over the past two years (warranty just ended.) but has no problem, only some traces of use (screen has a little default, nothing visible on use, and some minor things that i clearly stated to my friend but which none does matter.)

So, what price would you ask him if you were to sell this laptop to him ?

Thank you in advance guys and btw sorry for my poor english.

 

Go with the 500 GB HDD one, you give yourself an empty bay to fit an SSD or something.

Having another HDD won't be much for battery life if you use a program to park its head while it's not working. Should be no warranty void stickers for the HDD.

As for the GX620. I have a similar one, Asus M50VM-A1 with p8400, 9600M GS 1gb GDDR2 and 4gb ram with 1440x900 and 320GB 5400RPM.

People have said it's worth about 350-450.

Yours could go for 500. (USD)

 

There's pretty much no warranty stickers that I saw when violating my GX660R's innards, so you can pretty much do anything you want.

My advice, like what Optimist/Negatron just said, is to get the 7200rpm 500GB laptop. Then get a cheapish SSD, like an 80GB Intel, and boom, there you go.

 

Im in Alberta. Left LAX tonight

 

LOL I was in Alberta (Calgary hometown) when I ordered from newegg, they messed it up so I went with NCIX instead.

 

Hmm. Has anyone done a clean install on this laptop besides me? My bluetooth is refusing to work. I see it in Device Manager, and I have the Motorola drivers installed, but my phone and bluetooth mouse can't detect it.

 

Nope I haven't done a clean install but you have to open a window where the bluetooth displays what it finds. I remember having to open this window to find my phone, otherwise I couldn't find anything.

 

Yeeeeeah.

That was weird. When I tried that last night I couldn't detect anything. After reading your post and doing what I did last night, it works again. You are a magical person.

 

Dear Forge,

Hows the temp on the GX660 when playing GPU and CPU intensive games ???

Is the fan of the GPU and CPU a normal fan like in a sager notebook or is it a more heavy duty one ?

 

I've never owned a Clevo so I don't know how it compares. It definitely cools better than an Asus G51vx, and I think it has better GPU cooling than the Asus G73jh.

As for temps, they're amazing. I stay far below 90C--around the 86C to 87C range--with Furmark with 800/1050 overclock, and my CPU cores don't get hotter than about 76C with a full run of Intel Burn Test.

 

... may I please ask whats the idle temp for both the CPU and GPU ?

 

I don't know if I'm a good standard, since I already hardware modded the laptop, but right now, on my Zalman NC2000 with 79.7F ambient my cores are around mid forties and GPU is at 42C. The minimum looks like 39C for GPU.

 

wow ... thats great temps ...



May I please kindly ask if you mod the internal CPU or GPU fans ?

 

My GPU idles around 48-54C depending on whats going on, and my CPU around 48C too.

Max temps are around 76C for both GPU and CPU depending on ambience temps, as I usually have around 100F temps haha. Right now it's cold so my max temp OCd while gaming is 71C or so.

I use turbo fan when gaming or doing heavy work though, not auto fan settings.

 

wow this laptop is rather cool ... they design it rather well

 

It's a very competent cooling system, for sure. The CPU tends to be a bit hotter than, say, a G73, since it shares a heatsink, but hey.

Concerning my mods, I drilled out my backpanel, slapped on copper heatinks where I could, repasted with Tuniq TX-4, replaced thermal pads with BergQuist pads, and put a copper shim on the GPU.

 

Finally got my GX660.

Guys, can you please tell me what softwares do you use for stress testing the GPU, CPU and memory.

I'm planning to use 3DMark05 and 3DMark06. Are those two enough?

 

CPU stress: Intel Burn Test, OCCT CPU test with Linpack
GPU: Furmark, OCCT GPU test
Both: OCCT PSU test.

Of course, run your usual games and any benchmark they have. 3DMarkVantage, Unigine, and so on.

 

Hey Forge, I've been meaning to ask - I noticed in your sig that you have your rig with independent HDDs. I suppose my question to you is, considering that the point of the GX660R is the RAID function - why not get the cheaper model GX660?

Unless you might be looking to RAID in the future? (in which case I answered my own question)

Basically the fact that this MSI supports RAIDed HDDs was why I chose it over a similar ASUS G53 (well that and the Dynaudio, and I hated the G73 keyboard which I assume the G53 will essentially have).

Anyway. Just a curious question

 

As far as I can tell, the GX660 only comes with a 720p screen. While I'm fine with 1366x768, I wanted to go 1080p this time around. More room to work and all, and the 5870 is more than capable of handling games at that resolution.

Also, I wanted the possibility of RAID if I decide to do so in the future.

 

Thanks, man. Will try some of those softwares.

 

For anyone that is curious ubuntu works with some issues.

1. The Raid controller does not allow for the install (although I am sure there is a way around this I do not currently have the ability to do do this workaround due to limited internet services)
2. I have not been able to get the Blue-tooth to recognize anything.

Mind you this is only the 32bit version, I will test 64bit when I get back from Iraq.

 

Anyone have an issue where the hard drives randomly make clicking noises? It's starting to frustrate me >_>

 

. .

 

I'm overclocking without any mods except repaste by reseller. I use stock voltage and MSI afterburner to OC.

GT663 should offer better battery life if it comes with Optimus. Otherwise it will be the same thing. Basically the same laptop but with nvidia.

 

I think I heard mine once do clicking noises but it isn't common at all. if the clicking noises are noticeable it could potentially be bad.

Does the system hangs/freeze when the noises happen? like you can't open folders or something like that?

 

No, it doesn't slow down or freeze at all, but it seems to only do the clicking when the hard drives are idle, like when i'm not downloading anything. Ken at GentechPC said it might be a windows7 process that automatically defrags the hard drive, but i booted into safe mode and it continued to do it (with that process turned off). They just make somewhat noticeable clicking noises really randomly. It's not that loud, but if I'm just sitting around writing a paper or surfing the web it can be a little annoying. I might have MSI send me replacement drives, and see if that helps. I already made a system image/boot disc so it would probably be worth it.

 

. .

 

One thing I would add to the review is the limited BIOS functions it could be a dealbreaker for some out there. The BIOS is really too simple there is none of the normal functions you would expect from the BIOS. Coming from a Dell 1520 to the MSI GX660R it was a little dissapointing what the BIOS allowed me to do. Overall I am happy with this Laptop though as it is way faster and the sound is excellent.

 

is there a 3G function on this laptop? I see something about Fn+F10=3G

 

fn+f10 is the wifi toggle.

 

Hey guys!
Do you have any idea how to remove the black borders when you are playing games which have lesser resolution, then 1920x1080?
I just simply can't seem to find a solution. It sucks to play Knights of the Old Republic in 1024x768 when all you can see is a small box and a big black border around it.

 

Why aren't you just playing at the native resolution?

 

Kotor isn't supporting anything over 1280x1024
And I'm just thinking, I'll have to play on lower in 1-2 years anyways, when newer games get out

 

honestly, I'm playing dragon age origins, at full res, and full graphics at 60 fps. I really doubt there will be any games coming out in the next couple years that you can't play at decent fps at full res. And don't even mention Crysis. Crysis is merely a poorly coded game that has practically become a benchmark rather than a true gaming experience. A game that turns itself into a benchmark obviously wasn't made well.

 

Fn+F8 is wifi toggle. idk about you

 

Ye well, but I still can't play my favourite play, KOTOR I just didn't think I wouldn't be able to play any game on anything lesser then 1920*1080

 

Hmm, maybe you have to go to desktop and lower your resolution the match the playing resolution of the game first? See if that helps.

 

Yeh, I've tried that, didn't help tho

 

Then you might be stuck unless you move to an external monitor that has a lower native resolution. The game probably just really sucks at scaling resolution when it's non-native. Dunno what else to tell you. There may be a mod out there that can help you more. Maybe try googling "KOTOR resolution mod" or something of the sort.

 

I have the clicking noise too.. can't say if it's at idle or not, but definitely noticeable when i'm surfing the internet or word processing. I don't exactly notice it when i'm gaming (but who would, we're all preoccupied )

this is actually kind of annoying.

 

For anyone that has applied ic diamond 7 can you tell me what temps you are getting with furmark, or some games like crysis demo, starcraft 2, dirt 2, borderlands, red faction, MOH beta, Lfd2, lfd (lol these are the games I have)? Cause I am getting the same temps on furmark as I did with the stock paste which is around 85 C, but maybe its skewed cause my clocks were 100 mhz OCed to 800 1000, I think I will retest right now =P.

 

I've made a little ground so far as to discovering how to stop the clicking. Either A) buy another hard drive(s) that doesn't have the APM feature or B) disable raid on the computer, download notebook hardware control, and change the APM and AAM settings. I was considering the raid option, but I'm afraid i'll lose a lot of performance by disabling raid. choices choices..

 

Just thought id add my 2 cents. If anyone is still undecided about this machine, just do it! You wont regret it. And for those guys wanting to know the temps with upgraded compounds and all that rubbish, dont worry you wont need it. MSI have hit the nail on the head with the temps on this machine. It looks great and performance is fantastic. Just do it!

 

yea, cooling is good, but i like to keep the system as cool as possible, just my obsession

 

Test with stock clocks and see what you get.
In any case cooling for this laptop is amazing considering it only has 1 fan.