-->*OFFICIAL: MSI GT725 Owner's Lounge*<--

Well to be completely honest a stock GT725 will be completely fine for me and I will have no issues at all. The Q9000 @ 2.0 ghz will be plenty of a computer for me for now. I'm just interested in what could be done for the community. I would love to stuff a QX9300 in later down the road when they're not $1000.

Coming from a Compaq Presario F700 with an Nvidia 7000m the jump to the GT725 is going to be quite overwhelming to say the least..

Current computer= 1.9ghz dual core, 2gb DDR2 667, 7000m GPU (64mb).
To jump to a 2.0 quad-core, 512mb 4850 and 4gb DDR2 will be pretty nice


In all honesty I'm not really worried about having max settings on games, just a nice thought that I could if I wanted to .

 

Haha i know what you mean man, i went from 1.83ghz, 1 gb 553mhz ram and a nvidia 7600go straight to q9000, 4gb ram and an ati 4850.

Everything feels right lol, theres no trying to run the latest games or anything, it just works how i want it, and the boot up time and load time, god its great.

 

I'm new here and I must say: WOW this thread is HUGE. LoL

Hey guys! I just got my GT725-212US and found this owners thread. Pretty awesome. I got it to act as a mobile desktop when I couldn't get to my other system which is also a Quad Core machine. So far it's pretty cool.

My Desktop's a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz, Asus, blah blah blah. It lacked a proper GPU though! It's still on a 7900GS so that I can use Leopard without worrying. I should go HD4850 in that sucker as well... hmmm!

Right now, I've only added an 80GB Intel SSD to the mix, Vista Premium installed. Will probably take the 80GB and 64GB G.Skill Falcon and put them into my desktop instead, then get a 120GB Intel SSD or OCZ Summit for the GT725.

Anyway, all in all it's pretty sweet! I wonder what the GT729's gonna offer.

I do have some questions, though!

1. Has anyone gotten Leopard up and running as a second OS? I've made some headway, but haven't gotten everything to work properly.

2. Which 8GB ( 4gb x 2 ) set of memory are you using with Vista 64? Link and Price? I saw a decent DDR2-800 kit from Patriot on NewEgg running at a CAS 5 Latency, not too shabby! I'd like to find a DDR2-1066 set. I think Samsung makes a kit?

3. Anyone updated to the new BIOS released? What are the advantages?What was fixed? I'm trying to find LIVE UPDATE SO I don't have to go through the bootable USB stick, but might have too anyway. Anyone got a working link to MSI Live Updater?

4. Any other Battery Options? This one is already huge but if I'm gonna go mobile I won't mind buying a larger battery. Any links?

This thread is huge and I'm going to start reading it (as a hobby, lol) but wanted to find out the questions.

You guys rock!

 

DDR 2 1066? Do they exist??

I would say crucial ram, two 4 gb sticks seem cheap

GT725 should have ECO modes you can also change power opts with the battery ico in the bottom right.

I have only really dual booted windows so i know it works but not sure about leopard, i think there could be ati driver issues with that but im not sure.

 

Awesome. Gonna check otu some Crucial. I saw DDR2-800 Sticks but not the 1066. Gotta check for it again!

I tried the Eco mode out, seemed to last about an hour, or maybe I didn't. Hmm.

And yeah, the ATI drives for the HD mobility series are what's jamming me up in Leopard. I mean, I can boot into a 1600 resolution by forcing it before loading, but no native support for all the goodies.

But it's a start, anyway. I would like to have it up and running for FCP and my RED Digital Cinema workflow.

 

DD3 tends to be 1066 but never ddr2 (well OC ofc) you wont see a difference at that speed either though so dont sweat

I dont know if MSI overclocks the FSB and ram clocks on the quad machine, i know there are some changes.

 

Yeah haven't seen too many Notebook sets of 8GBs doing 1066.

I think the 800 x 8GB should be enough anyway. Gonna Squirrel a set then drop Vista 64 on this thing.

 

My desktop has DDR2 @ 1066mhz... Is underclocked to 800 though, kept randomly bluescreening. I don't know if that means it WOULD be available in mobile form though.

But yeah, I've heard 1066 DDR2 makes about 1% difference over 800 DDR2, so its not worth forking out any extra for (which doesn't explain why I put it in my desktop )

 

One other question, since the GT729 is supporting DDR3 @ 1066, does that mean the GT725 motherboard will be able to handle the same? No?

 

Lambo, they are the same motherboard

The intel PM45 supports both ddr2 and 3, just there are different slots for the ram (pin wise, 200 as opposed to 240? cant remember, there are differences)

Im not sure if its possible to solder on some ddr3 ram holders, it may be doable but only with alot of hastle and accuracy.

 

Soldering? Now that doesn't sound good! Maybe I'll just stick with DDR2.

Actually, not as bad as the time that I cut the end off a short PCI slot to fit a PCIe x16 card...

 

I called MSI this morning, mainly because they hadn't replied to my email. They said removing the panel on the bottom is fine, and when I asked if I could replace the thermal pads, he just asked: "Have you done that before". Seems you can do anything to their laptop and its still under warranty. What I don't get is they couldn't be more eager for me to remove that panel over the phone, but to get it off I had to remove the warranty sticker...
Strange...

 

Gota be careful though, MSI are happy with professionals swapping out the thermal pads and paste with the heat sink but they hate fools who dont know what the heck the are doing

 

i've just found that windows security is not very good. after using a trial verson of bitdefender, i found 4 torjans and 1 virus on my laptop.

i like to know what internet security or anti-virus do you guys use or would recommand?

the weird thing is, after installing bitdefender and removing the threats, my laptop seems a little sluggish than it use to be.

 

Run CCLeaner on the registry and files, and try Comodo antivirus or that one beginning with A (LOL).

Comodo is free and has alot of tools for it

 

any experience removing viruses or trojans with that software?

 

Catches them before they do harm, enough said

Cleaner speeds computers up madle if there cramped.

 

To be honest, I use AVG Free and SBS&D and have been clean since I reformatted in January (McAfee let in some back in December). Of course, I probably just jinxed myself.

Just be as clean as you can in your habits. Don't forget that stuff can definitely get in through cookies, and if you're heading to a site you suspect may have some bad juju, block cookies before you click the link.

Edit: Oh, and I also have Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware software. That cleans up a lot of stuff, especially for being a free version. That thing almost (left some hard to get hidden stuff) cleared my PC two times.

Edit 2: Alright guys, I've been thinking a lot about this laptop purchase (after all, it's $1,600 that should be going to college), and I'm starting to wonder if the graphics card is upgradeable in the 725. I know you can put more RAM in and slap in a new CPU, but with portable graphics cards, is it as simple as swapping them out? I mean, do you need to buy a mobile specific card, is it even possible?

 

you mean you want to swap the 4850? Trust me, after trying this lappy out you wont want to. But as far as i know the only thing prohibiting you from swapping the graphics card in any laptop is the interface, and the position of the heatsink (i.e. will it cover the core). The 4850 in this laptop has a PCIe x16 interface, which i think all of ATIs mobile cards have. Youde have to check (by looking at a pic or something) if the core is in the same position.

 

eSet nod32 antivirus is excellent too, I been using that for awhile now and never had any problems and it does not use alot of system resources either.

 

Yeah, the 4850 is a pretty beast of a card. I am not sure what you would upgrade to anytime soon, especially if you went with the WSXGA+ panel and 1680x1050 native gaming.

 

Well the 4850 does definate not need swapping out at this stage, but yes i believe it can because of the fact its mxm 3.0 (dont know if its a or b but its also backward compatible with mxm 2 just like the 1722 models are with the 3.0 card)

 

I know the 4850 is a pretty good card, but I just want to have the possibility if I need to in the future.

And thanks for answering.

 

I agree. The GPU was the main reason I bought this. For the price and speck the UK210 is outstanding. I often forget to use the Turbo mode on most games. The frame rate is always great at native res.

I havn't played anything yet that really pushes it, and I shouldn't think there will be much out in the next six months that will.

In 16 months time I'll be upgrading again, so why bother hacking the machine up. Just sell it for £300-£400 which including the reinvestment works out at around £45.00 a month. Pretty good considering how much use it'll get.

This is as good as you'll get for pure performance features and value for money.

 

Hehe, i game with the machine in low power alot of the time hehe. Also i felt i got a bit conned when i purchased a 42 inch tv with a native of 13**x*** something low, but having that resolution + gaming on my laptop which is connnected over hdmi, i feel the ATI 4850 with such low res and the 42inch tv, its gna last be a god dam long while and the funny thing is, quality is top notch! Just need like an 8 meter HDMI lead or some wireless gear and im set!

 

Just to add, earlier i was in the garden and i put my machine on a chair,

My dog decided to show me what an athlete he was and long jumped a meter onto the lid of my laptop.

To my joy, i found that.

The screen had no flex and sprung right back into position(at all, and this dog is medium in size)
No scratches at all (His paws are sharp and wrecked, WTH did they make this lid with!)

Really happy with build quality now.

 

Hmmm... I think I'm having second thoughts about the build quality of this laptop. Keyboard flex? Don't know what you're talking about! Touchpad rubbing off? None of that thanks to my touchpad protector (want one? they're on ebay ). But, you know how instead of having latches for the lid, they have 2 magnets? One on either side near the speakers? Well, it seems it pulls too hard, becuase on either side of the monitor the finish has completely rubbed off, which is clearly visible. Is this happening to anyone else?

 

I do not have keyboard flex, the touchpad did wear but im ok with that, its not strong.

There are rubber pads and magnets? My finnish is still fully complete, and the dog jumping on it, i just cried thinking the paint would wear, it hadnt, can you get some pictures lambo?

 

Yeah I will take some pics, one question, to post them, I just resize them and attach them, no? I cant see you having the same problem Catacylsm, if I'm not mstaken your laptop would have the white finish surrounding your monitor, basically the same as the red finish on mine? The problem isn't really that bad, if the laptop was years old I'd be fine with a bit of wear and tear, but seeing as its happening so quickly (in a couple of weeks) it will probably get worse.

 

Yeah, i hav esilver paint around my monitor, but i wouldnt expect it to wear, not yet anyway, that would just be dam annoying.

I may get some black decals and just beef up the silver parts of the laptop hehe.

 

"dam annoying"? You got that right!

 

Mine is still going strong my brother played some new FPS with a guy with morphing powers of some sort looked cool as hell! FPS 50-60's (vsync is always on on my book) and GPU temp was a mere 53C. game looked ludicrously violent but my brother seemed to enjoy it alot. Odd thing is, he is the one going for a psychology degree

 

9.6's are up and are better for 4850's than the wimpy 9.5's were. gonna install them. Does modtool now work on new drivers or do i have to manually edit the things again?

 

wow, seems the new 9.6 drivers are a real speed boost on 4600 cards and above. Sweet! Comapany of Heroes performance reporting a 25% increase! Hope we can use Mod Tool with this soon.

 

Whaaa your joking red, im practically finding the 9.5's fantastic.

Im playing Crysis, at native res, all on very high with no lag at all (hard to believe eh Video coming soon!)

Can we have some linkage to the 9.6? Apparently crysis gets a boost for Crossfire Config, so surely single solutions recieve a beaut boost as well.

Cheers
Cata

 

After lots of research and lurking in the various forums here, I finally took the plunge and ordered my GT725 today.

My old Toshiba x200 (Canadian/Euro variant of the x205) wasn't cutting it for newer games like Empire:Total War, Crysis and UT3 and it looks like the MSI should have no trouble with any of them.

Just wanted to thank everyone who has posted here - it made my research a lot easier.

I'll post back here once I get my unit and have a chance to try it out.

 

Playing Crysis on very high at native res? Thats pretty good. 9.5 plummeted my framerates into the red, hope 9.6 is better. Does anyone have a modded .inf file they would like to share.

Good for you! and welcome to the lounge of awesome, you have bought yourself a place.

 

Yeah man, welcome to NBR! and we look forward to having you here in the MSI section

And im playing prototype on low power settings at max detail + aa, am i hardcore or what?

(no lag either)

Lambo, how are them pictures coming, could i also see a picture (off camera) of the front of your screen as well (desktop) i want to see what different resolutions look like on these machines.

 

It doesn't matter what you're running at, it's what speeds you're getting in terms of FPS. Sure, I can run Crysis maxed out in DX9 mode on my current PC, but if I'm running at 2fps, it's not that great, is it?

Meh, you guys don't know me enough yet. I'm pretty cynical.

 

I must be getting over 30 fps in dx10, these drivers have kicked it so far, and i dont even have all 4gb addressed lol.

There are optimisations for that problem wate, prehaps we can get that 2fps to 17 atleast

 

How does that work!? I don't get near that! Is it because yours is rebadged, and somehow better?

Heres those pics too... The rubbed off bits are circled in red, I tried to get them in the light. (They do look worse in real life, considering that the laptop is only a couple of weeks old)

 

If you want a better pic of the desktop catacylsm, I'll take one with a better camera.

 

I believe Cat is running an advent which is 1440x900 res... that would make very high settings a little more bearable.

 

ahhh... thats it! Was gonna say! Takes a desktop 4870x2 to reach that performance. What does everyone think of the pics? And has this happened to anyone else?

 

Hello everyone, Read all 250 pages while i was waiting for my GT275 to arrive. Was extremely informative, i practically new the beast before it even arrived which was extremely helpfull.

As you guys like to compare system to system, here are my stats:

Stock 2.53ghz
Stock fatory GPU drivers (no overdrive)
GPU temp 81'c
9478 3dmarks

3.03ghz (20% OC)
factory GPU drivers (no overdrive)
GPU temp 82'c
9931 3DMarks

3.03ghz (20% OC)
Latest 9.6 (no overdrive)
GPU temp 82'c
10213 3DMarks

I am concerned about the heat of the GPU so haven't Overdrived my Graphics card. But to be honest i achieved my goal to break 10k on 3dmark so not overly concerned. Hopefully, being brand new im hoping the thermal paste hasn't bedded in or something.

I also not happy about CPU-Z VID reading from the CPU, @ 1.325v i feel i may have lost the processor lottery

Otherwise im extremely happy with it.

 

Hi foxdie uk, WELCOME!!! As I said before today, join the forum of awesome, where a place can only be bought, not earned. Let's get one thing straight: you NEED 9.6 drivers. I'm trying to modify the .inf file myself so I'll post them tommorrow. ATI promises HUGE performance increases with the new drivers. Also foxdie, what are your idle temps? 45-50 is acceptable. Sorry for all the words in CAPITALS, but I'm TIRED!!!

 

Well i installed the 9.6 drivers using the method outlined earlier in the thread. Uninstalled driver.
Driver cleaner. in Safe mode
Unpack 9.6, but not install
Update driver and pointed to unpacked files.
Unfortunately the exact inf file wasn't there so i think i selected CW_#### (the other option was CL_####
This is where it gets hazy as i can remember which option i speciifically choose.
But i selected 4800 series from the drop down window (i didn't select 4850 option).
It all installed without a hitch. Its stable, and the drivers are faster, The card is running the same temps. i haven't checked all the functionality of the card. But it seems to be working A-O-KAY.

tell me i haven't killed my card lol

Oh, and my idel temps after being left on over night while downloading stuff via steam was 53'. Although it was a hot and humid night last night in the UK.

 

No, your card should be fine. Thats weird if you selected a card other than the 4850, that means you just installed drivers on your 4850 for another card. I didn't know that was possible, let alone getting better framerates out of it. 53 degrees is the highest I'd be comfortable with though. And CW_#### was the right .inf file.

 

Well in hardware manager it now states 4800 series. But when i did my run on 3d mark results page it detected 4850. But im not sure where it gets its info from. It has made a positive effect on my 3Dmark score though as you can see in my first post..

 

Hehe neil, its a bit more then a little bearable the frame rates go off the roof with the card in that res and since its native then it doesnt look rough and unsmooth, its great I think 9.6 when fully modded can run fluently even on highest res MSI GT725

Welcome foxdie, im a Uk'er also hehe, and the temps were dreadful last night, couldnt sleep on it so i just played more game ^^

Your card should be fine, if it malfunctions then you can boot up in safe mode and remove the drivers from there. 9.5 are completely stable and 9.6 offer a boost in crysis which i am very eager to see, again welcome.

Hmm lambo, it seems my advent is the original chasis, the MSI must be painted over, you could try and brush it all off or maybe rub alcohol into it? Silver is quite nice but that is wearing dam fast.