***The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 970M Owner's Lounge***

BTW how does the footprint of the GS60 compare to a 15" Macbook Pro? My wife has a 2008 Macbook Pro (a hand-me-down from me...), I assuming the GS60 is a little bigger footprint-wise, due to the numpad etc. but am just trying to get an idea of how much bigger and whether it would fit in a messenger bag easily enough...

 

I agree with both of you.

I have owned 3 GS60'S. I can tell you that the laptop is absolutely perfect. If you want the perfect laptop buy that.

BUT

if you need battery life in any way it's absolutely horrid. So bad I am returning it. It makes me cry but o well.

The GS60 has literally died on me several times in class because it just cannot last. With everything on absolutely min settings.

If it wasn't for this I would keep it.

However.

I believe either the:

Alienware 13
Razer Blade 14

Will be able to take care of this problem.
The Alienware 13 with the U processor or the Blade with a 75 mh battery.

Like I said before I would keep the GS60 if it simply didn't have a horrid battery life.

I think I can get enough for note taking in classes with the new razer because they have a better optimized screen for battery and optimus.

Let me know what you guys think of all this.

 

The Alienware 13 does not have decent graphics (and a U processor is a worry for a gaming machine) without the (massive) external graphics amplifier, and I think a 13" screen is too small for gaming (14" is surprisingly bigger than you think). It also has the styling of a brick.

The new 970m Razer Blade looks lovely, but they're not going to sell it in Europe and won't cover warranty for it there (I asked both questions with a an official Razer rep), so is no good for me.

The 14" Aorus V3 Plus V3 has a bigger battery than the GS60, but build quality is a worry, and it's not exactly a subtle design with the massive heat vents at the back

 

Hi so your gs60 came from factor with raid 0? And you always had to wait for the raid check in the boot? Maybe the videos are fake do you know away to find it out?

 

I doubt they are fake but I wonder what their settings and ssd specs are. It's apples and oranges either way - those are completely different systems. Those systems might have little or no startup files. On a clean system, it will boot in a few seconds but with all the bloatware, it will take longer. Also, some of those are more than 2x ssd, so that will be much faster. The M.2 SSDs for the GS60 aren't the greatest, so I wonder whether there if the speed gained during boot is less than the speed lost initializing RAID. It could also be a bios issue, which might have been resolved since I tried last. Either way, I'm happy without Raid, so I didn't do a whole lot of tinkering past the first 2 days before I broke it. I don't think I'll ever retry it until I get some better SSDs in there.

 

BTW for college have you considered the Gigabyte P34W v3 ( http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5325#kf)? It's a 14" with a 970M GPU and 2.6Ghz quad core CPU, with a 61wH battery? It's basically the cheaper version of the Aorus X3 Plus V3 ( http://www.aorus.com/x3plus.aspx ). I quite like the P34W, but the build quality doesn't seem to be as good as MSI and way off razor. I'm not so keen on the styling of the Aorus and it looks a bit over priced.

 

BTW is the GS60 2QE all metal? I know it's not CNC machined like a Macbook Pro or Razer Blade, but I saw one site say that the bottom was plastic - is it, or is it the machine all metal?

 

Not all metal, the bottom is not metal, it's plasticky, probably for heat insulation if you somehow decide to use in on your lap ???

 

Thanks, that's a shame, as coming from MacBooks, I've got used to having all-metal laptops.

 

GS60 is quite big, the bezel around the screen is darn thick

 

For one thing GS60 has a bigger screen, it also has a numpad, I especially like the pg up and pg dn buttons but that's just me
Second I think would be the wireless adapter, it's not using Intel 7260AC which is problematic according to different sources.
GS60 also has sd card reader, mini display port and a slightly higher resolution 3840x2160 vs Blade's 3200x1800.

The new GS60 QE uses i7 4720HQ by the way, the same as the new Blade's, if you get one from last year it'll come with 4710HQ ...... so be careful

And it also has 2 year warranty (+ 90 day extension if you register your product) ....... I think Blade only has one year warranty ........

and ...... that's all I can think of

 

Thanks! The screen resolution isn't so much of an issue as I want a matte FHD 1080p (I currently have a Macbook Air which has a matte screen, not glossy like the MBPs) to avoid glare and scaling issues. Actually this is where the GS60 is better, as although for both the GS60 and Razer Blade 1080p model (in the UK anyway) they only come with 8Gb RAM and small SSDs, you can at least upgrade the RAM in the GS60 (though I'd probably get a computer repair shop to do it) and you can either add another m2 SATA SSD or put in a large 7mm SATA SSD (or both!).

Also, apparently the 1080p on the GS60 is one of the better ones. Don't know about the Razer Blade's 1080p screen yet.

Not sure that a numpad is a plus for me - I've never found the need to use one at home or work and it just makes the computer bigger than it needs to be (hence large bezel etc.)

BTW yes I'd noticed about the processor upgrades on the G60, the 2.5Ghz model is actually becoming scarce - I'm only seeing it on the 3K model in the UK now, which itself seems to be being phased out (shame, as if not going for the 1080p model, I would have gone for that).

As for warranty - the Blade has no international warranty outside of the country it was bought in (I think it's 1 year if you do this with an MSI), so I would have no warranty if I somehow managed to import one...

BTW I tried spec-ing out an XMG P505 (a rebranded Clevo P651 with a 970m GPU) with a similar spec to how I would want an upgraded 1080p GS60 2QE (16GB RAM, 128GB m.SATA SSD + 500GB SATA, 1080p matte screen) and the price came out about the same - about £1600 - see: http://mysn.co.uk/shop/xmg-pro/xmg-p505-gaminglaptop.html

The XMG is more easily upgraded, and perhaps has better cooling,but it's 5mm thicker and 0.5Kg heavier - the lighter GS60 looks a better deal to me.

 

I also have a few problems with mine and sent it for repairs.

1. I had artifacts that grew bigger every day, then I ended up with BSOD's.
2. Recovery function is not working, while I can see the recovery partition and also verified that it has recovery files on it.
3. Also the battery problem. Got mine with 11,3% wear. I asked for a battery repair, or if I could buy a spare one, but they say i can't! wtf?!?
4. The battery never lasted longer then 2 hour for me while having all on power safe and just typing documents.

What is worse is that the shop I bought it from (Alternate) is not wanting to help me any bit... I bought this laptop as a business laptop, since the laptop showed defects withing 7 day's I expected I would get a (maybe temperate) replacement. Instead they only want to sent the laptop for 5 weeks to Polen for repairs.. I'm really angry because I bought this laptop now instead of waiting for the new cpu's because I needed it now. I did not buy it now to send it for 5 weeks of repairs as soon as arrived. I'm also afraid that the guy's in Polen won't fix the multiple errors that I have, I'm afraid they would send it back the first moment windows is starting normally again without looking at the other problems.

The laptop is a great machine, and I hope I'm just an unlucky one that had a bad machine, but I'm not really sure yet if this machine with this service quality is something that can be used in a business environment. would like to give it one more try though if repairs are going well.

 

Which artefacts did you get Ace?

I'm getting some weird mostly diagonally shaped / triangular screen tears. I already managed to observe them even just surfing the web.

One check is to simply see something which is changing rapidly, for example this strobing video (epilepsy warning: don't click if you have troubles with rapidly changing lights):



You need to set Chrome to use Nvidia GPU in Nvidia Control Panel. Then for me the artefacts usually happen near the video start (try reloading few times, also open in YouTube, hard to see in embedded size).

 

i just updated my 1525 driven from this website bois, hope it helps!
http://killernetworking.com/support/driver-downloads

 

I am kind of thinking like you are thinking. I am so close to pulling the trigger on Alienware 13 and a amplifier but that U processor really has me worried. I really really do like the battery life though!

I might pull the trigger on the razer but I just hope that the battery life is much longer life is much longer because i will be sacrificing in other areas like the ports.

I am over gigabyte and aorus. I am just not liking their overal build quality. After seeing these other laptops I just can't go back.

 

That battery problem I believe is pervasive and msi is (so far) seemingly trying to evade this issue (from the lackluster response I got from them). I've raised the issue with @MSIGeno, msi's rep here, as well as a supervisor in California because I've been seeing posts about high wear level, but again, I didn't receive any good/useful response from msi. I have had 2 brand new GS60 and both have very high battery wear level out of the box ........ I hope msi will address this soon ...........

 

Hey guys I've been wanting to buy this beast since november but held it off. I wanted the ghost pro-064 model which is 1899. So I finally just ordered my gs60 ghost pro from ibuypower.com, it comes with the 6gb 970m but only has 8gb and no SSD which I will add in after but with the 5% off 1299, my total came out to be $1734 after tax and discount. One question, I swear I saw the specs before that the SSD was a m.sata but now I'm seeing m.2 sata, so which is it exactly?

 

I just returned the Ghost Pro -066.

Absolutely loved it. But if I was going to tie myself to an AC wall adapter I'll find something more powerful like the Titan or a Desktop.

For more battery I'm going for Razer blade or Alienware 13.

 

To be honest at least on the blade I dont see the battery being better to the point of being worth to return your Ghost.. the Alienware is also way heavier is it really worth it?

 

I don't mind the battery, I'm never away from an outlet for more than 2 hours anyway.

 

The Blade has almost double the battery life of the GS60. That is exactly what I need to note taking in class.

If that is the case why not the the MSI Titan with SLI 980M because that has 4 hours of battery life.

 

I still need the portability, will be using it for work. Also wayyy out of my price range.

 

I feel you. But I think I'm going for the razer for the 75 mh battery alone.

 

If you really liked the MSI GS60 but needed more autonomy time, another solution could be to get an external laptop battery e.g. https://www.powertraveller.com/en/shop/portable-chargers/professional/powergorilla/ - this (or similar products) ought to at least double the time on battery, in theory. Obviously it would be another thing to carry around, though.

 

I used to own a laptop with a removable battery and I usually took it out whilst using my laptop on AC power to protect the battery. The battery although is now at 56% wear level, but after 4 years of use I consider myself successful in prolonging the life of the battery.
Question is: What precautionary steps do I take with my GS60 ? I can't remove the battery, it doesn't have a power management tool like Lenovo, so what do I do?

 

I have tried many external batteries when I owned the P35x V3. The only problem is they are not powerful enough to charge the battery and use them at the same time. Unless they fixed already. Usually you have to have your laptop off and then charge it.

 

So apparently the GS60 touchpad is multipoint, has anyone tried it yet? so far I could only zoom in and out using the usual pinching motion ........

 

Three and four finger swipes will work as long as the driver supports it. I'm not sure what the default driver supports but my gestures work fine

 

Which razer? the 14 inch one? I have read that one has a long battery life of about 6 hours. The regular 2014 edition seems to last around 4 hours, so its about 1 hour more than GS60.

Taking it out hardly works for anything. Your battery will also die of age, no need to drain all its charges. It doesn't have power management like lenovo, but then again that hardly did anything to increase my battery life span (3 lenovos with 4 dead batteries) but this is normal, because of usage. My GX660R lasted about 3.5 years of constant use before the wear level was high, over 50%. After that, it only took half a year before it died off.

i'd say you shouldnt really worry about it at all. Years later you can just buy a replacement battery to feel as good as new.

 

I know that GS60 won't charge its battery if it's more than 90% capacity, it'll just say "plugged in but not charging", this is to prolong battery life (as what msi told me). I don't know if every laptop does this ........ but quite a cool feature.

 

hey guys, my GS60 lags even when i was playing LoL, can anyone explain why? it was fine, but somehow it just started lagging from time to time

 

Yes this is a standard feature of sorts. Been a while since this has been working.

Monitor your GPU and CPU temps and usage, as well as check if you are running in any power saving profile etc.

 

thank you! would you recommend a better monitoring software to me? thanks!

 

The usual ones are MSI Afterburner for GPU (it includes GPU and VRAM utilization on top of GPU temperature) and CPUID HWMonitor for CPU temps.

By the way, does anyone know if Razer Blade's charger would work with GS60?

 

Yes, using one right now in fact. Works the same and is a bit smaller.

 

Hi aqnb,

No I have different artifacts.. they seems to only come in DirectX enabled 3D evirometns. OpenGL looks fine. For me they look like reandom flickering dots accros the screen in various colors (most of the time white isch). you seem to have a different kind of problem.. But I'm sure yours is a hardware related problem.

Other question.
Does someone in europe know where to get a razorblade AC adapter in Europe?

 

I don't think the Razer Blade AC adaptor works on European 220/240V, or at least that's what someone else told me

 

haha... no.. that should not be a problem.. that would be really strange

 

My artefacts are also just with DirectX when in windowed mode. OpenGL in windowed mode and DirectX in fullscreen mode are ok. Hence my guess most people are not even aware they could have such problems.

BTW I already managed to find another notebook that has the same issue - also MSI GS60 but the model with GTX 870M, also very new unit. So now I'm more inclined to think this may be some software issue, either in Windows 8 desktop window manager, or maybe in Nvidia / Intel GPU drivers.

Or alternatively, it could be busted Optimus, either some design issue, or faulty HW (like I needed even more reasons to hate it).

 

both cpu and gpu get about like 35% workload, but when the game gets really intense, it will start lagging, I am afraid that maybe i have downloaded some wrong opponents for my laptop, should I update my opengl or directX short of stuff? It was fine when i first bought it, I think a GTX970M could absolutely handle LOL in high setting.

 

I would probably want to update your NVidia drivers first before doing the OpenGL/DX updates ( those are generally pushed via windows updates ). You should also have a light identifier on the power button that tells you if the notebook is using the NVidia GPU ( Blue, I think? ) or the Intel GPU ( Orange ). Might be the other way around, I still haven't gotten my GS60 yet. rofl.

 

Orange=Nvidia GPU active
Blue=Intel iGPU active

 

So I just got my GS60 today. Needless to say, I'm super excited and I'm typing on it as we speak. Loving the keyboard and the general build quality. A notch below the razer blade, but it's still VERY well built. The touchpad... could be a LOT better. But it's still better than nothing at this point and the battery life surprised me with 3.5 hr life span so far. VERY excited to see the gaming performance on this bad boy.

It cools very well. I'm very happy that I waited for this iteration rather than settling on the 870m version.

 

there is no way that my GS60 gonna lag when i am playing LoL, I require absolute smooth environment, GTX970m could definitely do the job, what is wrong with my gs60

 

Nope, nothing spotted like that here. Mine charges to 100% with status of "Fully Charged".
Any how, just noticed that the MSI Dragon Centre is not showing the GPU temp, it reads something like UMA. Although I can see the CPU temp there.
Any idea what's wrong?

EDIT: LOL. Stupid me. Never mind answering

 

Bought this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-...gb-128gb-ssd-1tb-hdd-3gb-nvidia-geforce-gtx-9

Any tips or tricks. Loving it.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing the following problem. It's regarding the MSI 'Shift' feature (Fn & F7 Sport, Comfort & Green).

I've had my GS60 2QE 3GB 670M for about 2 months now. Whenever I game I always have MSI Afterburner running in the background so I can monitor GPU Core/Mem frequencies and Temps. I've had a few occasions now that the Memory Frequency has been running at reduced clock speed, even with the system in Sport Mode (& High Performance). In fact the only way I could get the GPU to run at max Core/Mem frequencies today was by uninstalling the Dragon Gaming Center.

Anyone else had similar issues?

Bit scary as if I hadn't watched out I would have believed I was running in full performance mode.

 

Question to any owners here -- I've found a minor cosmetic issue in my unit and I'm curious to know, how easy is it to remove the bezel and reattach it? Mine is slightly popped out from the chassis. It's hard to notice unless you're looking at the notebook from above or you look rather closely. But here's how it looks:



Any suggestions or how-to videos I can be pointed in the direction of? It's a touch upsetting to see that after how much money was dropped on it. lol. But I can still live with it as it doesn't affect the day-to-day performance. Maybe when I'm actually taking it to the field.

 

Has anyone compared visually the size of the g60 with the gs70 ? on videos and specs it doesn't seem to be a big difference but there's nothing like actually seeing them beside each other.. I have quite more options in my country when it comes to the gs70 .. I currently have the gs60 I might change it for a gs70 if it isn't that much bigger