MSI MS-16332 Notebook Review

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Overview and Introduction

The MSI MS-16332 is to say the least a desktop replacement. Packed with a powerful nVidia GeForce card on top of the new AMD Turion64 X2 processor; this will easily fulfill any of your multimedia as well as gaming needs. Let me just start by saying that I’m far from new to desktops and computers in general, however I am fairly new to laptops. The laptop I had before was a Fujitsu Lifebook made in 1997, so this was to say the least an upgrade. I picked up the MSI MS-16332, a fairly new piece of work put out by MSI; a Chinese company that in no way lacks on building their ensembles and barebones, but are mostly popular and known for their exceptionally made individual notebook component parts.

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MS-16332 specs as reviewed:

• Display - 15.4” WXGA+ Widescreen Glare TFT display
• Processor - AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.80 GHz Mobile Processor
• Memory - 2GB Corsair DDR2-667 (2x1GB)
• Hard Drive - 80GB Hitachi Travelstar 7,200 RPM SATA-150 Hard Drive
• Optical Drive - Super-Multi drive (supports DVD RAM)
• Graphics - nVidia GeForce GO 7600 256MB VRAM(dedicated)
• WiFi Adaptor - MSI Wireless 802.11 a/b/g + Bluetooth
• Battery - Li-ion 6 cells battery (4400mAh)
• Camera – Built in 1.3 mega pixels camera (rotates vertically 180 degrees)
• Operating System - Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition
• LAN / Modem - 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN and modem Module
• Audio - Realtek ALC 882, SoundBlaster™ Compatible
• Card Reader - SD/MMC/MS/MS-Pro/XD/SM 6-in1 Card Reader
• PC Cards Slot - PCMCIA 2.1 Compliant, Type II x 1, Express Card x 1
• I/OPorts - DVI , TV-out, USB 2.0 x 4, IEEE1394, Mic-in, Headphone
• Dimensions - 14.09&quot; ( W ) x 10.20&quot; ( D ) x 1.06~1.30&quot; ( H )
• Weight -  less than 7 lbs (complete system)

Reasons for Buying 

4 - 5 years back I played Asheron’s Call and Counter-strike alot and since many of my friends started buying new notebooks, I thought I might buy one myself and possibly get back into the gaming scene as well as doing all the other things people do on PC’s: use MP3s, DVDs, surf the web, burning dicus (you get the idea). I sort of wanted a 15.4” notebook because I would be watching DVD’s along with wanting some portability. I had saved up some extra money working the previous summer and seeing that I had the money to be able to buy one, I did. Like most people I aimed to minimize the costs as much as possible so I was set on spending no more than $1,500 in all. I ended up buying the Asus z92t with the AMD TL-52, 1GB RAM, 80GB 5,400rpm HDD, Geforce GO 7600 256 VRAM and all the other goodies; internal wireless/Bluetooth, Windows XP home, etc. I got the notebook and it was running pretty well until I ran into some internal system errors that I couldn’t exactly interpret and unfortunately for me, neither could the reseller; so ultimately I sent it back for a new Hard Drive replacement and when they sent it back, the wireless card wasn’t installed properly, and lots of other hardware problems kept introducing themselves (this was all over a time span of a month!). The Asus z92t is NOT a bad notebook by any means, in fact it’s a very great notebook, it’s just that I had been one of the few unlucky people who were issued a malfunctioning notebook. I got fed up and ended up returning the notebook and they waved the fact that the return notebook time was overdue. Because it’s fairly hard to find a notebook with an AMD Turion64 x2 processor with a solid GPU (ATI or Geforce) on top of having a 15.4” widescreen, I thought I was doomed from finding a similar notebook. It was then when I came across the MSI MS-16332 and it looked simply amazing to me; exactly what I wanted.

Where and How Purchased

After extensive research on the best deal for this computer, I understood almost everybody was selling this for around the same price except for an online notebook and computer selling business located in Colorado. Their name is Flawless Computers and they can be found at www.flawlesscomputers.com, this notebook edition on their page is known as the Ambition730 series. I ended up paying $1,599 -- which was a little more than I wanted to spend but I honestly could not pass up the offer I was getting. It was shipped in 8 business days and from then on everything went smooth. The payment of $1,599 included everything from shipping to taxes. This deal came with the 6-cell battery, the notebook, included software and driver disks (manuals as well) and the AC power adapter. You can also buy these at rkcomputer.net.

Build and Design

Comparing this to the Asus z92t (basically Asus counter-version of this exact notebook), I would have to say that this notebook has the slight advantage. And no, this is in no way a biased view point; I truly believe this has a better build quality than the z92t. Basically this notebook is very thin and sleek for its power and capacity, much to my surprise. The casing, is however not made of titanium or any type of metal, it’s a hard plastic that provides a good to above average protection. It’s not exceptional nor is it lacking in this department.

The display indicators on the bottom right of the notebook indicate (light up) when there is  battery power usage, power on, wifi adapter usage, caps lock, hard drive accessing, number lock and scroll lock (view large image)

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On the top right near the battery is the Hard Drive while the motherboard and its components are in the middle bottom.

Screen

Here’s a picture of the screen with the 180 degrees moving camera on the top. (view large image)

The screen I purchased is the basic common 15.4” glossy glare-type LCD with 1280x800 resolution. There is no graininess in the screen. There are zero dead pixels in it as of yet. I’m not the biggest fan of the glare-type glossy screen, it just annoys me when the glare appears in the screen when viewing it in the daylight. But I can’t complain because it’s doing its job very well so far. It seems very nice with colors and has a vibrant look to it, which is kind of cool. I’m note sure if MSI has released the higher resolution matte screen for this notebook yet, but if I had the extra money I probably would have made that upgrade…but then again it's all about preference in regards to screen resolution, one is not necessarily better than the other.

Speakers

Let me just say that these speakers are much better than the ones on the Asus z92t I purchased and returned before this one. It comes with a Realtek ALC 882, SoundBlaster™ Compatible audio. I’ve heard many people on NotebookReview.com have complaints about Asus' low speaker volume and bass; that same problem arose when I bought the z92t; horrible speaker volume. This one on the other hand provides a much higher volume and bass tone. These speakers are actually pretty good for a laptop. The only con I would give in this section would be that when I put the volume to the fullest (which can get quite loud), the speakers can get a bit crackly when certain sounds are emitted, but it’s a very small fraction of crackle, nothing that would create a noticeable disturbance.

Processor and Performance

Performance of my AMD:

The Turionx2 TL-56 1.8GHz  is no slouch when it comes to raw performance. It games extremely smoothly at the highest settings and multi-tasks with zero lag. I never have trouble with jittery gaming or smoothness of performance when doing an immense amount of different memory requiring tasks! (sometimes more than 15 tasks).

The 2Gb of RAM helps a lot, but I only recommend it for those who will be gaming or doing high end multimedia tasks only because my notebook never really exceeds far above 1Gb or Ram when doing normal things, it only does it when gaming. As far as the 7,200RPM Hitachi Travelstar Hard drive, it is hard for me to compare this because my previous Fujitsu laptop was a piece of  junk altogether, so I couldn’t really tell what the 5,400RPM was solely like. But I would advise most people to get the 7,200RPM hard drive over the extra Gig of RAM only because for one, it accesses the disk very fast and it becomes useful when dealing with mp3’s and multimedia. Also, if you do end up needing the extra gig of RAM later on, it will be fairly easy to install it provided you chose the option to configure 1x1GB on your notebook (changing the hard drive will be much harder).

As far as gaming in particular, I play Half Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Far Cry all at the highest settings and they run extremely smoothly without having any issues.

The choice between Intel and AMD:

Ahhh, now to the important part and which ultimately separates this laptop from most other laptops around this price range; the famous and seldom infamous AMD Turion64 X2 processor. Well let me just start by saying that I have no bias between AMD and Intel products, something that many people can say but usually don’t feel.

AMD and Intel both operate differently in terms of output and business, Intel being the large corporation it is, usually tends to appeal to a larger crowd meaning they have to appeal to a wide variety of users ranging from the local soccer mom using her notebook to the computer graphics coordinator at MIT. AMD, as it is commonly perceived, appeals to a much smaller crowd that often have specific needs when using their notebook. This is in no way saying that one is better than the other, indeed both excel in different areas, but one may appeal to a person more than the other due to the exact ‘needs’ of that particular person. 

When I was debating on which processor to buy, I knew for sure that I wanted a processor that was 64-bit, meaning that it was capable of running Windows Vista and the soon to be released 64-bit applications and software in the coming years. Also, I knew I wanted a dual-core processor because the dual cores are very efficient when dealing with multi-tasking because it allows for more threads to be processed at the same time. And lastly, like most others, I had a budget. Now with all three of these criteria, I had two processors that fit exactly what I was looking for: the newly released Intel Core 2 Duo and the AMD Turion64 X2.

Now I have heard a great deal of information on both of these, some stating the Intel to be better than the AMD and others stating the opposite. Many people state that because the Intel comes with a higher cache size and includes options that don’t come with AMD (efficient battery run-down options) that it is better. Others state that because AMD is equipped with a higher Front Side Bus, it allows for the Ram to access the CPU much quicker and optimize the use of the Ram in a notebook. Whatever the case may be, I think most people lean towards Intel being better than AMD, but it is also known that Intel’s Core 2 Duo carry a higher price tag. So because there wasn’t an immense difference in terms of speed and the AMD’s were much cheaper, that became the final difference within my choice at the end.

Benchmarks

Comparison table for PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
MSI MS-16332 (AMD Turion X2 TL-56 1.8 GHz, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	3,951 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel GMA 950)	2,994 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FE590 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	3,427 PCMarks

 

 

PCMark05 results screen shot (view large image)

 

3DMark06 Comparison Results:

3DMark06 tests the graphics capabilities of a system, it is more demanding than 3DMark05.

Notebook	3DMark 06 Results
MSI MS-16332 (AMD Turion X2 TL-56 1.8 GHz, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	1,745 3DMarks
HP nc8430 (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	1,745 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,528 3DMarks
Dell Precison M90 (2.16GHz Core Duo, nVidia Quadro FX 1500M)	3,926 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX)	4,085 3DMarks
Compal HEL80 (2.0GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	1,654 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB)	4,744 3DMarks

 

HDTune Benchmark Results:

 

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Heat and Noise

For its sleek small size, the amount of noise this thing emits is remarkably low. It is a very quiet notebook, and much quieter than the z92t. As far as the heat, where the CPU/GPU are, on the bottom right of the keyboard can get warm, but in no way unbearable. Of course, the heat will increase with the amount of power being used by the notebook meaning if one is to use programs that require more usage of the notebook, it will warm up. After a few hours of gaming, the GPU (Graphics Card) can get to temperatures near the high 70’s, but usually never exceeding 80 C. As far as the CPU, with the computer on almost all day while doing on and off gaming, it gets pretty hot around the right side of the notebook only, but never really affects performance. I have used it for over a month and have yet to need a separate cooling means in order to allow for smooth computing.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Now with the keyboard, I have heard of people complaining of an awkward flex that they have in their keyboards. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but I can infer, this keyboard by the way has no flex, its sturdy. However, there are two minute problems that have come to my attention the more I become acquainted with this machine: one, the shift button on the bottom left side is smaller than normal shift button because it accommodates for another button they have introduced that is not normally on a keyboard; the button that produces these two things | . It is easier to view in the screenshot.

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The other problem is that the touchpad, being as big as it is, can get in the way of the keyboard and hands when typing and sometimes gets touched by the palms which annoys the heck out of me. I got used to it and I don’t do it anymore because I became careful not to do it. Otherwise the touchpad works well, it is a grainy type of touchpad meaning that it feels grainy so it’s easier to notice the movement on it; I like it.

This notebook is also equipped with a fingerprint scanner for security enabling purposes. It’s really fun to work with and it works perfectly. I set it up once, and messed around with it but ended up just forgetting about it because I am always the only one using my notebook. But it was cool for the time I used it.

Input and Output Ports

Ports included are as follows:

• DVI
• TV-out(s-video)
• USB 2.0 x4
• IEEE1394
• Mic-in
• Headphone

Front of the notebook that has the three jacks such as mic-in, headphone, etc. Also has the SD card reader (view large image)

Back view, the heat ventilation on the left and the battery on the right (view large image)

 

PCMCIA slot, IEEE 1394 firewire, 2x USB 2.0, TV-out(S-video), DVI-out, AC-adapter jack. (view large image)

 

Both network jacks, 2x USB 2.0, Optical drive (view large image)

All the Input and Output ports are on the both sides of this computer, just as they are in many of the HP notebooks. Nothing is on the back side except the heat ventilation and the battery. There are two USB’s on each side, the DVI and S-Video are on the right side and the optical drive and Ethernet/phone line inputs are on the left side. Some people prefer things being behind the notebook, I don’t mind having them on the sides, plus it makes it easier to plug/unplug whatever you’d like faster.

The PC card slots are as follows; PCMCIA 2.1 Compliant, Type II x 1, Express Card x 1. And the card reader is a SD/MMC/MS/MS-Pro/XD/SM 6-in1 Card Reader. I have yet had time to use any of these features.

Wireless

I assume that the wireless card I have works like most or any other 802.11 a/b/g card. It always detects the same signals as my roommates do and ultimately haven’t really had any problems with it. For those who haven’t yet tapped into having a built in wireless card, let me just say that it’s extremely convenient.

My notebook is also equipped with built in Bluetooth (something you can upgrade to for a very affordable price). I recommend anyone who has Bluetooth on their portable phones to choose this upgrade because it is very fun. I am able to directly connect my phone to my computer and ultimately send any audio, image, video, game, or software files to my phone, very fun to play around with.

Battery

Now for those who mean to buy a strong capable notebook with a longer battery life, I strongly suggest you buy the separate 9-cell battery for this notebook. With my computer on everything max performance setting and doing several tasks, the battery gives around 1 hour and 30 minutes time. It gets around 2 hours when I change the setting to max battery performance, but then again it dims the LCD brightness and doesn’t allow for very much from high end programs. I’m told by others who have this notebook that with the 9-cell it allows for around 3 hours battery life. I will soon be purchasing the 9-cell when I get a chance.

Software

I personally spoke to reseller of this notebook and he told me for the price of Windows XP Home he would generously give me XP Professional Edition. Pro Edition doesn’t do too many features that are of use to me, but if you have a network wired to your computer or you own a business, this can be very handy. It is more secure and allows for different and more options than XP home edition.

The package also comes with Nero 6 and all the drivers and utility disks that the computer needs. You can upgrade for more software or talk to him and attempt to accommodate for things that you need if you’d like. And to top it all off, 3dmark 06 and PC Mark 05 were installed on the computer when it came (a sign of confidence on the reseller's behalf!).

Customer Support

Let me just start off by saying that the people at FlawlessComputers accommodated for all my needs and were very generous and straight to the point when dealing with them. There was no fuss or anything else. Since I’ve gotten the notebook, I have only come up with one problem- I forgot my password that I set for windows login- and I changed the setting for my reboot to have to put in a password before logging into Windows on accident (I know what you’re thinking…! Anyways, I spoke with FlawlessComputers and they directed me to a site where I was able to fix the problem by purchasing a downloadable program and burning it to a CD, and then booting the notebook with the CD in the drive. They paid for the program and directed me exactly as to how to do it, it was fast and easy! I was very satisfied with the customer service.

The warranty with them is a 3-year warranty that is provided by them and not MSI. I believe their policy is that when something goes wrong with the computer, you take it to a local notebook repair shop and they pay for the bill. Needless to say I haven’t yet had to do that.

Conclusion

I’d like to end off by saying that many of the reviews that people post tend to offer all the “great” parts of their respective notebooks and because they often hold a bias towards their notebook, frequently lacks criticism where it is due. If I had a problem with my notebook, then I have presented it in this review, end of story.

It is necessary to understand that you cannot buy a perfect laptop, many people have a hard time understanding this concept and end up paying for an immense amount of upgrades that they ultimately won’t need. It is important to be aware that you have to buy a laptop that will accommodate your needs. This laptop has done more than that for me, it allows me to game, download, burn CD’s/DVD’s, word process, deal with all types of media and implement tweaks with lightning fast speed. Unless you are issued a malfunctioning notebook, I cannot see how you would be disappointed with this purchase, because I am undoubtedly not.

Pros:

• Much cheaper than other similarly configured notebooks.
• Good performance with the Turion64x2 TL-56 and Geforce GO 7600.
• Quiet notebook and cooling system.
• Thin and lightweight design for a 15.4”.
• Fully compatible with 64-bit computing.

Cons:

• Size of the Shift key on the bottom left side.
• Size/location of touchpad.
• 6-cell battery allows for little battery life.
• Would rather a matte screen (preference)
• Mediocre construction.

 

A very interestoing notebook and a very interesting review
Is there any simmilar MSI but 14.1" instead of 15.4"?

 

That was a very good review! Well written too. Nice to read a review on an MSI notebook.

 

I must admit that I am quite surprised by the benchmark numbers of this notebook. Its PCMark score is faster than the 1.86GHz Core Duo (there is a mention of 1.83 and 1.86 GHz Core Duo -- is this a typo?), while there is something odd with the 3DMark06 which shows in the table 1745 while screenshot says 2317. Either way if these numbers are sane, perhaps Turion is much faster than what the media and/or the silly PI calculation app leads us to believe?

Any clarification is much appreciated!

Ico

 

Another inconsistency in the PCMark table: how is core 2 duo at same frequency so much slower than the core duo at the same speeds? Shouldn't we have simply PCMark focus itself on non-graphic-card dependent tasks since we are already including 3DMark scores anyways. Please note that I am not suggesting this as an Intel fanboy but rather in order to figure out what my next purchase will be...

 

Great review!

It's probably the 2300 number.

Is this the same as the M677, btw?

 

If it is indeed 2300+ pts for the 3dmark06 then that would make it surprisingly more powerful than a Core Duo at 2GHz with the same video card (see the same chart)...

 

Isn't MSI Taiwanese?

 

Depends your political views on China/Taiwan

 

I really like a few things about this notebook: the rotating camera, the DVI-D output, and the price for the configuration is quite nice.

Nice review. I was particularly impressed with the benchmark scores. This system performs rather well.

 

Thanks to all for the comments, much appreciated. As for some of the questions..

You know what, I think you might be right. But i know for sure that these are made in China.

Yeah it is the 2317 number for 3dmark 06 on this comp, the table shows a different number, but oddly it shows the same lower numbers for other very similarly configured notebooks.

 

i'd have to disagree with your comparison of AMD and Intel.
2 years ago, I'd agree that many argue over which is better.
Now, it's pretty obvious to anyone that Intel has the edge in almost all benchmarks (albeit possibly temporarily).
i'll always have a sweetspot for AMD though, as the only intel I've ever owned was a Core Duo.
It's great that there's so much competition

 

7600`s come in a few flavours, including downclocked and 64-bit bus parts. I have benched the MSI 7600 MXM card and I got 2233 on a Pentium M 1.73GHz 512MB system.

 

Nice review of an impressive notebook. Anyone know of any MSI notebook dealers in Canada?

 

Ice Tea, are you saying that the MSI 16332 has a removable graphics card?