*The Offical MSI GX60 Owners Lounge*

I have just got the GX60 and finding my way around both the machine and this forum.

Is there a way to get the S-bar utility for this machine? - I am running windows 8 (another story completely!!)

Also the boot up time does not seem that quick considering my model has the SSD drives - is there anything I should be doing to improve this?

Thanks for any comments to point me in the right direction

 

S-bar I am (wildly) guessing you mean start-bar or start menu. If I am correct in that guess, try Stardock Start8. 30 day trial, only $5 to buy, *TOTALLY* worth it, allows you to boot straight to desktop, get rid of charms, have a win7 or win8 start menu, all customizable with just check boxes, no annoying fiddling or googling.

My boot up times with a 7200RPM hard drive for the first half dozen or so reboots were *obscene* and any time it updates it takes 5-15 minutes to shut down. Be warned. However it seems to have settled down, though I always leave my machine on as it is primarily an apartment jockey at the moment, so I have rebooted only for "must reboot to continue" moments like driver updates and somesuch. It will get faster.

As for ssd issues, there are a number of things to check, many of which I am hardly the least bit familiar with - main question to ask though is, how did it come to be. Did you order it with SSD (and if so, from where) or swap in SSDs? Did you image the drive, clone the drive, or fresh install?

 

See, I am a night owl, I work graveyard, I keep backlit off, why? to me its a distraction, the keys are always in same place and never move. So I never have seen the point of backlit keys besides and aesthetic feature for some people.

 

SCM replaces S-bar on windows 8. Get it here http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GX60.html#/?div=Utility&os=Win8 64

 

For me, I have a ThinkPad (non-chicklet keys), Dell desktop at work, ThinkPad Tablet with Keyboard Folio, and MSI GX60. Keyboards are always different for me, wildly so.

 

Some 7970M OC info:

Ordered mine with the ICDiamond paste upgrade from Gentech:
Stock Clocks on 7970M (850/1200): 89C running Kombustor for an hour
Stock volts (1.050v), 920MHz core 1450MHz Mem - 100C (!!!) 15min Kombustor, held steady at 100C through 30min.

Incredibly impressed, never had a system so stable at such high temps. Clocking down for now but holy good grief, glad to know we can push these hard and they refuse to let up. BTW, zero artifacts.

Performed in a 74F room on a glass coffee table - no additional cooling. I'm nowhere near the tweaker that Meaker is, so I won't be modding voltages or pushing it any harder. I found the memory overclock had a much better performance impact than the core clock, for those interested.

 

I got asked how I overclocked my card, so I figured I would share with a mini-tutorial. Downside is, I cannot figure out how to shut off the 7970M after this, as soon as Afterburner starts, your video card is on until reboot, even after closing Afterburner and killing the task, the orange light is still on - would definitely love suggestions on how to fix that

I followed (loosely) this guide. WARNING: Google and firefox BOTH go Bat@#$% crazy about it being an attack site. It is a risk I took, and it had zero negative impact on me. I simply relay this warning so you can choose not to click if this worries you. I will do my best to make the link obsolete.

Code:

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=182403

Alright, so I installed a fresh copy of Afterburner AND Kombustor when I got the machine, I did not reinstall and I am starting here with a fresh copy. I am running Windows 8 X64 Home
1 - Install Afterburner/Kombustor, latest edition
2 - go to the install directory (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner)
3 - open MSIAfterburner.cfg with a text editor (plug: I would note I LOVE Notepad++ as it is also a great .nfo viewer and excels in other areas)
4 - find:

Code:

[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA	= 1
UnofficialOverclockingMode	= 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod	= 0
UnifiedMemoryUsageMonitoring	= 1

5 - Set the values to match the ones I specified (Sorry I forgot to save values pre-mod, but if I recall, the top TWO numbers were set to zero before I changed them)
6 - Open registry editor (windows key + R, type regedit in the box that pops up, press enter)
7 - view attachment, go to this directory and set EnableUlps to 0. Do this in all number folders (

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

8 - *REBOOT*
9 - Open afterburner, overclock, and enjoy your desktop 7870. I found artifacting and driver crashing at 950MHZ/1450MHz within 30 seconds of kombustor. Good place to start and work down. Core was stable at 940MHz, I run at 920Mhz.
10 - To unlock voltage mods, you supposedly can check a box within the afterburner options, however it failed to allow voltage modification for me. YMMV

 

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere in the thread, but can the GX60 output 3d games to external display? Using Tridef?

I just got my machine this week, and it seems to be detecting my Samsung TV as a 3D device. At least, when I look at the available resolutions they all say "3D" next to them.

But when I installed Tridef drivers and ran their program it says 3D not supported by this device.

I can't find much about the 7970m and AMD HD3D. Can't tell if D output really is not supported or if it is an issue with switchable graphics... any insight? Thanks!

 

Update from me on my GX60 issues.

Have arranged an RMA and Amazon is sending out a replacement for me, should have it on Friday.

 

Hello, I'm new here...first a great happy new year to everyone here in the forum....
Here is my question to all who own this laptop. I would like to know how many times that the fan spins in a minute....because my GX60, that I've bought here in China, spins for 20-30 secs and then stops and the there is a quite period and then it begins to spin again....it's really annoying.
Also the fan sounds like a RRRRRRRRRR sound, at least it's somewhat audible when you play music or games...I don't know how does it exactly has to sound and behave.
Would somebody can help me out with these 2 things please?
Thanks in advance.

David
PD. By the way the MSI warranty includes this kind of fixes or not?...because I'm just using it for 1 month and a half.

 

So, my 7970M will not shut off. From cold boot, the power light comes on orange and stays on. I know this is my doing since I set afterburner to use the 7970M, but is there no way to shut it off manually? To force it off? Even with Afterburner closed (and verified through the task manager), the orange power led stays.

It's getting to the point of frustrating me simply because I will be using my laptop while out this week and I need to have some semblance of battery (and I know this thing can get over 5 hours with that 7970M asleep!)

 

It will stay orange as long as a program is running on the dedicated gpu. Try shutting down programs one at a time and see which is running on the dedicated. If you have origin, it may be running on the 7970M.

 

hey guys, Happy new year!

just got my gx60 today and I'm a very happy man. This is my first gaming laptop and I'm unfamiliar with what kind of tweaks, settings and utilities I need to modify/install to increase its performance and would appreciate it if someone could help me out with this stuff. thanks

 

Hey Guys,

I just picked up the GX60 as well and its an amazing machine, I just wanted to hear some peoples advice.

I wanted to upgrade the laptop and I'm in a bit of a situation.

These are the 2 options.

120GB SSD
16GB DDR3 1866Mhz

I've heard a few people say they got considerable performance increases from 1866Mhz ram but I feel that perhaps the SSD is more of a bottle neck if we compare the upgrade.

120GB SSD > 750GB HHD

or

16GB DDR3 1866 > 8GB DDR3 1600

Anyways anyone with some advice would be good, best of luck with the laptops guys.

Also I re-installed Win 7 not sure about you guys but I couldn't get use to Win8

Cheers!

 

To get the ram to work you are going to have to install a 3rd party Bios since the one on this machine is locked down tight. I personally would go with the SSD upgrade since it give you a good boost in performance without having to mess around with any 3rd party programs.

 

Is this the same as 12.11 Beta11?

 

It shares most of the performance improvements and have working brightness control and switchable graphics menu.

AMD Catalyst™ 7970M Enduro™ Performance driver is the best driver for the GX60 right now.

 

Exactly, I use it currently myself

 

Well, until they release the final 12.11 driver that's the driver to go for. At least that's what I did...and I really felt the improvement in Starcraft 2..
LisuPoland and all the owners of the GX60, would you can try to help me with the problems I stated in my previous post? I guess it will take a few seconds and I'm quite interested in this because it's my first gaming laptop...thanks again.

 

@bollo

The fan is pretty loud at 100%. Not sure what you mean by RRRRRRRRRRRR. I need to have windows volume at 100% and VLC player volume at 100% (not 200%), and turn the dial on the Altec Lansing VS2612 to over 50% to completely mask out the 100% fan noise when watching movie during the dialogues.

 

@PySoMaNiC

The faster and lower latency RAM will most noticeably improve your iGP performance. But you have a 7970m for playing games, so get an SSD. It's really an easy choice.

 

Brightness control is not working (at least not for me).

 

I love when I get a few days off, it guarantees something will break - winload.efi corrupt.

After reading and tinkering for hours and seeing people posting about winload.efi errors in windows 8 and them people posting back "well herpaderp this is the windows vista procedure durrrrrr" I said can it and wiped back to 7. I'm in the process of getting the driver havoc settled now, finding USB 3.0 support is a nightmare, since I *think* I have to use the MSI display drivers to get the chipset drivers for the device (trying a few other things first). I don't want to, because I have CCC 12.11B11 + CAP2 running flawlessly and allowing brightness adjustment. And networking was a hoot, I have the Killer WiFi which was not part of the stock drivers, took me a while to realize that.


Anyway, tl;dr is, In Windows 7 x86_64 Ultimate, the CCC drivers allow brightness adjustment.

And if you get a Winload.efi error, MSI will RMA your device as DOA (AND cover return shipping) to fix it, or send you a full set of recovery discs free - YOUR choice. So, for those questioning customer support quality, I'd call that top notch especially considering that it is something that isn't even their problem.



EDIT: AMD has chipset drivers that include USB 3.0 support. Downloading and installing now... http://www2.ati.com/drivers/12-10_vista_win7_win8_32-64_sb.exe

EDITEDIT: Drivers are perfect now. One remaining "unknown device" in Device manager, deviceID is AHCI/somethingsomethingRADIOBTN - it's a Windows 8 ONLY thing, there is no W7 driver for it. Leave it be

 

Oh, ok. I am using W8. That may explain why brightness control doesn't work for my Enduro hotfix driver.

 

I was using Windows 8 with stock (MSI) drivers, I planned on trying the beta drivers, but when windows 8 defecated in the sleeping apparatus, I wiped to 7 since I have a Win7 Ult disc and a crapton of licenses for it.

I was loving Windows 8, but without a strong base in a corporate environment, it is doomed to not have the level of troubleshooting support on forums and tech sites that Windows XP and 7 do... Sadly

 

Hey there!

That issue with the fan is odd.

On my GX60 I do not experience the "RRRRR" sounds at all. The fan does however always run very fast when playing games.

When it comes to the fan noise it often boils down to the personal preference, some people consider given fan sound annoying other do not get bothered with it.

Try to force it to maximum speed even when idle with the panel fan button, it might be a technical issue that causes this 'clicking' sounds, it might do away after some time if not then I would give it to someone tech'y to fix it, you wouldn't waste time until MSi fixes it, when it is just a small mini-repair.

 

Hi guys,
I've done a fair bit of research on the GX60 but I still have some unanswered questions that hopefully you'll be able to aid me with?
A bit of info on my use and lifestyle - Buying due to starting basic training with the RAF on the 13th March, there will be ALOT of downtime with nothing to do over the next year so a Gaming Laptop is needed as the Desktop is far to bulky to keep moving. Uses - Gaming, Internet, DJing (Probably very little), iTunes.

Firstly this bottleneck - The system I'm currently using was orignally intended as a gaming platform (A few years ago mind) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz, Inno3d 8800GT OC, 4Gb Kingston 800Mhz Ram, out of date now I know, but when Crysis first came out it would play it on almost all Very High settings at 30-40FPS. So, the question is, when this is bottleneck is mentioned, in what context do they mean.
Does the bottleneck only occur when there are several major CPU intensive programs working at the same time(Video, Photo, 3D editing software) that the normal gamer would never have, or is it an actual issue in normal operation including some gaming?
This system compared to my current desktop is an absolute powerhouse, yet my desktop does not suffer majorly with speed issues using Photoshop with itunes, several mozzila firefox windows open.
A bit of Clarity in this area would be nice!

Secondly, If this bottleneck becomes an issue in the future (6 months+ down the line) with more CPU intensive games, does anybody have any knowledge of AMD creating a newer, speedier version of it's mobile APU's with the same socket? That you could just replace for the newer version, for example starting the A10-5000m Series. Same socket, more powerful chips (Had a research, couldn't find anything)

Third, the cooling on this laptop I have read that it is quite good, but in my eyes, more is better, as long as there is actual air flow. Has anybody used a Cooling stand and seen any improvements from it?
I'm considering the Notepal U3 as it has 3 fans which are completely moveable and silent (almost)... How effective this will actually be I'm not sure as they're aren't many before and after gaming notebook comparisons using cooling stands. Perhaps it's something i'll look at doing once all items have been purchased.

Finally, the site I'm buying from is selling the model with the 2x64Gb SSDs in super raid, 750GB 7200Rpm and 8Gb 1600Mhz Ram and all the usual shiny stuff, but also includes FarCry3, Sleeping Dogs, Dirt Showdown and Hitman Absolution all for £1049
This to me seems quite a good buy considering without the 2 SSds and no free games it is only £999,
Opinions?

 

I have yet to be able to get it to stutter. I can play Far Cry 3 and I cannot get a single setting any higher and it refuses to drop below 30fps. I can play most games on high (Including newer games, Skyrim, LA Noire, etc) on the *integrated* at 30+FPS without AA/Anistropic - so the processor with the on-chip 7660G are very respectable. That said, the A10 has been compared (strictly processor) to the highest end Core 2 Duo Extreme Edition, or as an APU with the graphics to mid to high end i5 with Intel HD4000, however for gaming on integrated, it blows the doors off anything intel without a discreet card.

Second: Yes with a gigantic asterisk, there has been rumors AMD *might* discontinue this socket, however there are also rumors there will be another processor released. They are just that, rumors, I would plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Third, cooling is phenomenal, I overclocked my video card to faster than a desktop 7870, and in kombustor (furark, extreme 100% load) it ran at 100C for an hour with no issue. In games, I rarely breach 80C in even the most graphically intense games (Far Cry 3 so far).

Beware those SSDs are not all they are cracked up to be, I would highly recommend it at that price however just be warned, they use Sandisk (reliable but a bit pokey) mSATA SSDs. These are replaceable. The super raid version comes with 2x mSATA slots and one full size SATA bay. The non-"superraid" version comes with 0x mSATA and 2x full size SATA (that can be set up in super-raid in the BIOS). Honestly, its still ludicrously fast, it just isn't as fast as something with say two Mushkin Atlas Deluxe mSATAs (with toshiba memory! Beware though, they are now silently shipping the micron memory on them).


At the end of the day, this machine holds its own for gaming with machines 1.5x it's price, and in all other regards, it is most definitely NOT a slouch. With enduro, you are looking at 5+ hours of battery if you aren't gaming and don't have 7970M on (which is handled automatically).

 

That is exactly what I was thinking after reading more and more reviews, they seem to be very different as well, with many saying 'Bang for Buck, nothing matches at this time' and others questioning the performance due to the APU restrictions.

I think the biggest issue here is that due to the HD 9790m reviews are automatically classing the machine against Nvidia's GTX680m which (from what I have seen) has never been paired with an i3/i5 processor. In that case, before any benchmarks can even begin the scales are extremely out weighed, even by just the price range, £1000 vs £1800.
It is amazing to see rig's costing almost twice the amount only achieving 5 more FPS at 1080p and all settings maxed. Shows that the price increase for gaming anyway doesn't match the performance increase.
As this machine is going to only be used for Gaming I think a verdict has been reached!

Overclocking is definitely a dark art I shall leave for future ventures!
I ask about cooling as the Cooler something runs, the higher performance it can have, so a little extra can always help under heavy loads.
(I also hear that laptops being on your lap increase the chance of infertility! Big shock!) More myths and legends I suppose...

SSD's are also a new one to me!
Currently using two Maxtor HDD's, 120GB and 160GB both 5200RPM
Only used 50GB in the one and nothing in the other, space is definitely not a big concern!
Purely looking for speed, if it opens programs almost instantaneously I'm happy!

Ahhh final thing, this triple display.
Current computer is mounted under the bed connected via VGA to the 42" 1080P LED TV, it's got HDMI output, so duel screen could be used in this case, in gaming would connecting to a second monitor such as this one decrease frame rate at all? Or doesnt it work like that? (This bit is out of my territory as have only ever used single screen)

 

I have the CM Notepal U3 and it lower the temp by about 2 degree C.

If you connect your TV to your laptop as extended display, I don't think it will decrease frame rate. But if you use eyefinity with it, it will. But then who would set up eyefinity with 2 screen of diffident size? Eyefinity is most commonly set up with 3 identical screen (one must be connected using displayport). So you will be fine.

@ Sublime865
I'll really want to try overclocking it but the "driver stop working and recover" thing keeps happening even if I increase core by 10MHz in W8.

Anyone able to OC the 7970m in window 8 with Enduro hotfix driver?

 

Make sure you do the registry tweak in my post, if you don't it will cause the issues you describe with any modification (Not saying you didn't, but just reiterating). I was in windows 8 when I was overclocking the first time, the only other thing I can suggest is maybe make sure the switchable graphics (open CCC and type "swi" into the search and click the switchable graphics application list or whatever is closest to that - working from memory here, currently at work sorry) is set to run MSI Afterburner and MSI Kombustor in high performance mode, thus using the 7970M while the programs are open.

Of note, I was running stock MSI drivers on Win8. I am currently running beta 11 + CAP2 drivers in Win 7 Ult, have not (yet) tried overclocking.

 

Well in all honesty, with regard to the APU "restrictions", it gets beaten up on because it doesn't hang with the latest i7's an order of magnitude more expensive. Especially considering how almost every game today is GPU bottlenecked. And it's not just gaming, anything involving graphics design with OpenCL can use that 7970M for an insane boost.

Overclocking is actually fairly easy, I saw large gains even going from 850/1200 to 900/1400 (core/mem). It's all done through MSI Afterburner, and after the unlock is done, it all still runs dead stable, just a whole lot faster. All you need to do is slide two sliders from 850 to 900 and 1200 to 1400 and click save, apply, and apply at boot (ONLY after you test!!!.....I've made that mistake before in my younger days...). As for cooling, this thing was overbuilt, it stays cool in all but the most demanding games, but even then it stays way within the realm of safety. I've run Far Cry 3 for hours on my lap and it never got uncomfortable, though don't block any vents. This is truly where laptop cooling pads shine, especially usb powered ones, as even if there aren't any fans in them, they give the much needed air-gap allowing the notebook to cool itself. Even setting them on a (adequately sized) piece of cardboard or book gives it that space.

As for SSDs, I say the Sandisks are slow, they are still a crapton faster than any platter drive on their own, let alone in super-raid (doubling their speed), so you will definitely be impressed. They are also prone to longevity, Sandisk has always made phenomenal flash memory (thumb drives, SD cards, etc) that may not be the bleeding edge fastest, but 10 years later they still chug on day after day. I'd definitely say pull the trigger on it, especially at that price.

As for multi-display, you can clone your display and have absolutely zero performance loss (TV and laptop displaying same image) or you can set your TV as primary display and laptop as secondary (games always run on primary display as far as I know) and have almost zero performance loss (not noticeable). You could even use it like a desktop, set it on a shelf where it can be cool and happy, plug it into the TV, hook up a wireless keyboard/mouse and game away. I believe you can actually go as far as 4 separate displays, though I know the card will run Eyefinity on 3 external monitors (game stretched across 3 screens) and still produce more than ample performance.

 

Whoops. Well, have no idea what I did, but for the last two days my orange light just stays on. No changes to the switchable graphics settings or power settings seem to make a change. Nor do the drivers I'm using. I don't know what to undo, basically. Guh. Don't really want to refresh the OS this early in the game... have only had the thing about a week.

 

Refreshing won't do any good, this is the same issue I am having. Please, keep me posted if you make any progress. There seems to be a hung application running on the 7970M. I have disabled every single application and manually specified power saving mode and it still stays on.

 

I also have the MSI GX60, but the fps in BF3 is rather disapponting. I get somtimes dip to 20 fps. My settings are all High, with AA on off. Playing it on Full HD with the beta 11 drivers and CAP2. Is there anything that I can do to increase the ammount of fps? Or is this all what it can handle?

 

I'm not surprise you get low frame rate on BF3 multi-player. It is very CPU dependent.

 

Thanks for the replies Eric Lee and LisuPoland...well, as you say LisuPoland probably I'm giving that sound too much importance.. And the RRRRR sound is like the cat's purr.
Well, I'm somewhat worry about how many times the fan switches on and off....because it turns on and off every 30 seconds...that's the strange thing, because I'm sometimes, just, hearing music and it's somewhat disgusting too hear the fan switching on and off every 20-30 seconds...is there a possibility to change probably the value of temp or the CPU-load levels before it begins to spin again?

@icupnimpn2 &
@Sublime865
You can mess around with the registry, but sometimes the best way is to return to an old driver and then upgrade to the new one again.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ATI\ACE\Settings\Graphics\PowerXpress\Px4.0

 

I did consider that the whole 'bottleneck' was just blown way out of proportion, a 2.3Ghz quad-core processor of any type isn't exactly going to be slouch!

I had no idea overclocking was that simple with this laptop and well every little helps so I will definitely give it a go after a bit more research. From what I've seen there are even vents on the underside allowing a bit more air through for general use and peace of mind in overclocking.

Only a 2C drop in temp with the U3 cooling is shocking, I would have thought more. It shows it does have adequate cooling already! This laptop will mainly be used on top of a quilt on a bed and on a lap, so having the U3 they're is more of a safe guard so the laptop can always perform well. Plus without one I would imagine a huge amount of dust would but sucked up straight off the quilt.
I was shocked last night by my desktop under the bed becoming very loud, having noticed this I ran speedfan to check temperatures, at Idle CPU-68 and GPU-75 and under full load CPU-80 and GPU-87. Considering this is a desktop I was extremely shocked! Turned out a sheet had covered where air could get in and it became sealed, re-using hotter and hotter air. Checked it all over, adjusted fan placements etc. and now running at a much better CPU-55 and GPU-63 at idle. Air Flow makes the difference!

One big display is certainly going to be nice, I'm guessing in certain circumstance I could use the laptops screen as a secondary display for things like the map to be left on or (if I'm going to be boring) used as an instrument display in a flight sim?
Already have a gaming keyboard and mouse (wired as more reliable I find) so the idea of setting the laptop aside to do its thing is a nice one!

 

Things just got more complicated! £1049 for GX60 with SSD's and HDD with free games.
P150EM, 15.6", i7 3610 2.3Ghz, HD 7970m, 8Gb 1600mhz, 120GB SSD, Blu Ray, W7 not W8 (I think better as more troubleshooting) with same free games, bonus as keyboard is backlit. £1170, only £120 more... When the time comes to buy going to try for Forces discount to try knock it down abit more!
Space not a major issue as can always buy a USB 3.0 external SSD.
Think I might wait a couple of weeks to see if prices drop abit further but this shows the these 2 laptops are coming into the same price brackets (Almost).

 

Mine just arrived today! after a whole 2 months wait... finally...., I gotta say thank you to powernotebooks, they were really patience with me.

I got a question tho, I got a separate SSD I will be installing myself, do I need to burn a recovery disk before installing on my SSD? or can I just install windows on my SSD through the f3 recovery?

 

Picked mine up yesterday evening! compared to my nearly 5 year old Viao this thing is a beast! cant wait to try it out with a few games and get a few screens up and running for my office!.

Anyone know where a link to the most recent graphics drivers are? and if they have all the issues resolved? I know there is a link somewhere in the 60 pages of this thread, but cant seem to find them

 

I need help......I need a guide on how to reinstall win 8 on my ssd, I burned a recovery disk, but it doesn't seem like I get to reinstall to the drive of my chooice... I havnt try the f3 recovery yet, but if anyone know how please help....win 8 is a lot more complecated as Ithought..

 

Have you downloaded a Windows 8 ISO yet?

Download an ISO from the link below > after you enter your serial key > then unpack it onto a USB flash drive that's at least 4Gb using the Microsoft USB/DVD Tool

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=262204

Microsoft Store Online

Before installing remove all other drives except the one Windows will be installed on.

During the Windows Installation,right after choosing a clean installation,use the Disk Utility to format all showing partitions and then delete all showing partitions until only 1 partition remains where the space on the drive and usable space match in size.

Choose custom installation and turn off what you don't want.

I recommend not putting in a Windows ID at this time and use local.

W8 contains wireless drivers so you can immediately connect to the internet.

Install the Classic Shell to get the start button back and other missing features.

Welcome to Classic Shell

 

Thank you very informative, I will give it a try when I download the iso, but do you know how to find my serial key number??

 

It is somehow stored on the machine and will be detected. You *might* be able to view it by right clicking my computer and viewing properties, then scrolling down. I'm not sure though, as I'm not near mine and I'm not running 8 anymore (temporarily though likely permanent).

 

That's still a $200-$275 (super-raid/non-super-raid) difference - and keep in mind that you are getting about half the performance of the GX60 RAID0 array versus the 120GB single drive, with moderate gains in processing power - for that price. And also, does the P150EM come with a separate platter drive or are you just at 120GB total for storage?

Not trying to shoo you away, but if you have the money and are willing to have a MUCH slower SSD, with possibly no extra storage, go for it. If it comes with a secondary platter drive like the MSI, it's not as bad a deal. Get the best you are able to afford, if money is less of an object then you will find more performance with intel. You will really only see that benefit in few specific games (BF3, Guild wars 2), and it won't be a massive boost, but as tim the tool man taylor says, more power!

 

ok this doesn't work for me... When I typed in my product key, it gave me an error saying "This product key cannot be used to install a retail version of Windows 8"..... So I am unable to download an win8 ISO... o.o??

 

I have run into 2 games that were unplayable because of the CPU bottleneck. One being Red Orchestra 2, and Arma 2 neither will go above 20 fps, average of 15 with nothing else running. No matter video quality adjustments. Only draw distances make a difference. Cranking up or down video settings has almost no impact on the fps because the 7970m takes it very well.



It would be amazing if overclocking the A10 was possible. Never been past 65° C, so it could take it temperature-wise.

Any advise on how to improve performance, Apart from using non-official drivers?

Getting numbers like 99% CPU and 22% GPU utilization in Red Orchestra 2 while not even getting 18 FPS inspires buyers remorse to a deep level. I know that game is terribly optimized, but getting that on a new PC is just sad.

 

Are you DOWNLOADING the ISO? Microsoft's site sucks, and you may have to... *ahem*... "obtain" a copy of it elsewhere. When you go to install it, it should pluck it right off the hardware - I think. Don't do any wiping until someone confirms... :/

 

I have the same thing with Battlefield 3. CPU of 100% and my GPU only 50-70%. Changing GPU settings doesn't make a difference in fps.