[Official] Questions for the MSI Rep!

No problem, hey, I'm really excited to welcome our new MSI moderator ryzeki! We're going to be sharing the ever-increasing workload here in MSI.

 

Thanks for the welcoming and sorry for storming in this important topic. Let's get back to this thread being about Q&A for Geno!

 

ryzeki, a Mod..... RU KIDDING ME? LOL! Where is my dang promotion!



Ok, seriously though, CONGRATZ Ryzeki! (I guess I can live with this...... but I ain't kiss'in ur butt)

 

Hi Geno,

I was looking into purchasing an MSI laptop. Would anyone have any recommendations that fall within these parameters? I'm interested in the GS60 and GS70 because of their thinness and portability, but am certainly open to more suitable suggestions.

Also, has anyone had any experience with MSI support? How effective is it, and what problems have people had?

 

Congrats!!

 

Hahaha, thanks Striker And definitely no such displays of affection, for it is against the rules

Thanks Kevin

 

So far MSI support has been good to me in my experience. I am sure several users have positive experiences here. The important thing though, is to value the resellers that also participate in the forums. Both users and resellers will give you far more support than any brand on their own

GS series are good in portability and pack a decent punch, but due to the thinness and the hardware they pack, they do get hot when gaming etc. Definitely check them out if portability is of concern!

And the new annoucned GS30 seems like a nice blend of portability and performance

 

Without having to break NDA can you tell me if the current motherboard and the new incoming motherboard will have the same footprint? I.E. later down the line if I wish can I send my 870m equipped GS60 to have a new motherboard installed with the maxwell GPU and Intel CPU.

To go one step futher will it be the same layout as the current maxwell 850m motherboard?

Other than the obvious advantages I'd also like to get HDMI 2 for 60hz 4k on TV's later down the line.
Cheers

 

Hi Geno,

Question regarding the GS30 or successor systems:

Would you guys ever consider going with an external PCIE x8 or x16 ipass cable/connnector instead of the (proprietary?) connector that is currently being used with the base station? I would love to see the laptop with external pcie connected via x8 or x16 to a mini-itx/dtx form-factor backplane where you could plug in 1 or 2 x16 cards. If it used standard ATX power you could just stick it in whatever existing case you want. It would be a huge win for customers imho as it would provide a huge amount of flexibility.

 

Thanks for the info. Currently looking into the GS30...any anticipated release date as of yet that you know of?

 

I can answer this for him.
The circuit board will be different due to different size/pin-outs of GPU.
Layout and design will change and even become improved.

 

Hi guys, I'm so glad I found this thread I'm reading reviews of the MSI GT72 right now and also have questions about this daughter board. Thing is, it does NOT look like it's SATA. SATA 3 is limited to 6 Gbps (768 MB/s) and according to most sites' tests, the performance of this RAID 0 array by far exceeds that, something like 1200+ MB/s read and 900+ MB/s write. I also counted the pins on the connector - it's 18+8, which corresponds to mSATA but not normal SATA (15+7).

So my question to Geno and his team is - can you guys pleaaaaaase tell us what interface is used to connect the card? It doesn't look and perform like anything I know. Is it some proprietary connector that's hooked into PCIe lanes for awesome performance or am I missing something obvious? Thanks!

 

Geno has a new Q&A thread, and all future questions are better directed there. Also, for ease of location, this thread has been 'Sticky'ed at the top of the MSI Forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/761676-official-questions-msi-rep.html

 

Currently, the GS30 is more of a concept project for MSI. We don't have any guaranteed confirmed specs or time frame, so I am not really able to comment on it. However, any suggestions that you or the people here at NBR will always be taken into consideration!

 

Hi Geno,

In your first thread on NBR, -=$tR|k3r=- (thanks to him for redirecting me to this thread :thumbsup asked you a question about the M.2 daughter board, calling it a SATA III interface. However, it does not look like one. SATA 3 is limited to 6 Gbps (768 MB/s) and according to most sites' tests, the performance of this RAID 0 array by far exceeds that, something like 1200+ MB/s read and 900+ MB/s write. I also counted the pins on the connector - it's 18+8, which corresponds to mSATA but not normal SATA (15+7). So what's the connector interface on the daughter board? Something proprietary or just something common I'm somehow not aware of?

 

Awesome. Here's something similar to what I'd personally like:

PCIe_ATX_BP

These guys charge through the nose for them, but I imagine a company like MSI could design something far more reasonable with just 1 or 2 PCIE slots and a single x8 or x16 uplink connector using a mini-itx/dtx form factor. I don't know enough about PCIE spec to know if you can do a totally passive backplane or not. If it could be kept to ~$200 I think you could attract a ton of attention.

Pair that with a standard x8 cable:

PCIe x8 Cable

And the associated connector on the laptop and you'd be good to go. The big advantage being that now everything is standardized and could be use it across multiple product lines. Not just add-on GPUs, but 10GbE, Infiniband, external RAID controllers mounted in a multi-drive case, etc. You could even use it with SFF systems with uplink pcie cards (or have an uplink port right on the MB).

I don't think the base station idea can build enough momentum to survive long term. It's too tied to this one product. Make it more flexible and universally useful and I think you could have a hit.

 

So I wouldn't be able to keep my current chassis and install a whole new motherboard. I was holding out hope since we already have Maxwell 850m motherboards

 

Any chance this means improved cooling? e.g. connected heat pipes in the GS60?

 

Hey Vengeful,

So im a little confused by your question. They are indeed SATA III. The reason why the speeds are that high, are due to the Super Raid Technology we have in our systems. it uses 4 m.2 Sata solid state drives in Raid configuration.

 

Absolutely, every company constantly improves their design but it will not be the same model anymore.
IC components also become more efficient which means reduced power consumption as well as lower heat waste.

 

Hey Geno. I'm surprised no one has asked yet, but what is the official MSI take on end user upgrades and the ever ominous warranty void seal (e.g. on the GS60)?

And welcome to the boards, glad to have a real MSI presence here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The answer should be the same as what everyone got from their technical support team.
But let's wait and find out what he says tomorrow.

 

Oh I'm sure it is, but to get it straight from the horse's mouth as it were, I think is what everyone really wants.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The daughter board use 4 SATA connections of type m.2. Each slot is its own SATA iii drive to configure as you please.

 

I can only speak for the UK service (which was excellent apart from them not repasting my CPU properly) they installed a brand new motherboard and the sticker was not in place.

 

Hi Geno,

I've been having a lot of issues with my 7260 card in my GT70. It has a lot of reported issues with slow speeds and dropped signals. I've tried everything and it still doesn't perform up to par. I have other devices in the home and none have any issues.

Would it be possible to get a new wireless card without having to ship in my laptop? I cannot do without my laptop, and the cost of shipping is almost the cost of a new wireless card.

 

I'd be glad to answer this for you, but i'm no horse you got me?!

Our official stance on this issue is that, we do not want end users to be modifying/upgrading the units by themselves (hence why we place the sticker on it). However, unofficially speaking, if you have an issue with your laptop, and you have done modifications/upgrades yourself or by a 3rd party, you can still send it in under warranty for work, even if the sticker is broken off. The issue lies with what the problem that the customer is facing. If we look over the unit, and find that the issue is caused by the end users work, we will not honor the warranty.

TL: DR - don't be a n00b and install/modify things incorrectly on your notebook, and we will still honor your warranty. :thumbsup:

 

Nice, you should check out this thread to see how much of a pain Razer support was for a user named Midibach. You guys could practically use it for marketing.

 

Merged the previous Introduction of Geno with this official thread. No point in having two threads for asking Geno, let's concentrate on this one.

 

Thanks Ryzeki! appreciate it :thumbsup:

 

MibuWolf,

Unfortunately, we cannot just ship you the wireless card. we would need you to send in the unit to have it RMA'ed unfortunately.

 

Have a look here if you don't mind.

 

I'm aware of the RAID 0 configuration, but how can the total throughput of the array exceed the maximum speed of SATA 3, which is what you say the daughter board connects to the motherboard through? There must be an interface between the daughter board and the motherboard that allows for this kind of bandwidth. SATA 3 does not, since it's capped at 6 Gbps [750 MB/s - not 768 like I said before, my bad, small error], and even that is theoretical burst speed. The array reaches 1200 MB/s even with 3x M.2 SSDs, this is clearly higher than what SATA 3 allows, or we would not need PCIe SSDs. Besides, I've seen a picture of the connector and the number of pins (18+8) does not match standard SATA specification (15+7). So what are we really looking at here?

 

There are a total of 4 independent channels, thus having a total of more than 1600MB of bandwidth.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know SATA only allows one channel per physical port. You can have two ports on the same channel but not multiple channels on one port. And even then there's still the matter of the strange number of pins. Can the RAID card be replaced with a standard SATA drive? It does not look that way because it would not be pin-compatible. The number of pins instead of a SATA port exactly equals to mini-PCIe, which would explain high bandwidth and corresponds with what M.2 drives can technically connect to. Can MSI technical team clear up the matter?

Also please look at another picture this time from Kitguru. The perspective here doesn't mess around and it's quite evident that the port is much smaller than a normal SATA. I assume that in a configuration without the Super RAID and only two SATA devices this port is not used at all - I wish I could find pictures that demonstrate that but all sites are only reviewing the top config with RAID, grrr.

 

This is an interesting question. Normally SATA allows for 1 device per channel, but the controller can also use a port multiplier. If the 4 m.2 devices are using this port multiplier, then indeed the max total bandwidth would be limited to 6Gb/s However seeing how real world tests exceed these speeds, We assume that each physical port is a different channel for the motherboard, and thus each m.2 port is independent.

Could we get some confirmation?

 

Hey Geno! Good to have you here. I've got a question regarding MSI's awesome GT72 notebook! Are 120hz screens in store for the 980m Maxwell models?

 

Unfortunately, Geno cannot discuss future notebooks or hardware, that has not been released or announced.

 

Hi Geno,

First off, welcome to the forum. I think it's commendable that MSI has a rep here.

I have some questions/feedback...

1.) I like the design of the new MSI gaming series notebooks (particularly the GS60), but I'm afraid the G Series dragon badge is not business appropriate. As an IT professional, I would like to be able to bring my laptop to a business meeting without being snickered at. Is there any way to switch out the badge for a more work appropriate one (perhaps to the badge from the WS60)? I don't want the quadro card - I'm waiting for a 970m.
*Notebook Retailers: If you could offer this as a customization service I think you would be surprised at the number of takers! I'm looking at you Gentech and XoticPC.

2.) One of the biggest weaknesses of the GS60 is the small battery. I would like to see an option that drops the 2.5" drive in order to fit a larger 75Wh+ battery in the GS60.

3.) Instead of swapping the windows key on your SteelSeries keyboards, I would prefer a windows key toggle that would enable/disable the key. I don't find myself particularly prone to accidentally hitting the windows key, but I often use windows keyboard shortcuts when I'm using the laptop for purposes other than gaming and I can see that being frustrating.

Thanks!

 

Quoted from Derek@xoticpc:

The reason why Raid/Super Raid is possible is by taking advantage of multiple SATA channels. The computer can Read/Write to each channel simultaneously as opposed to using a single SATA channel writing to each drive independently.

Hope this answers your questions about the Super Raid Technology!

Like Striker says, (and posted under the rules of the thread) i cant comment on any future notebooks or hardware due to NDA.

Thanks for the welcome!

1) Currently, there is no way to change out the badge. i can recommend some awesome sites that sell laptop stickers and decals though! I can understand where you are coming from, in that the badge might not be business appropriate, but i think that in most cases, no one really cares about the badge on a laptop (but again i don't know your situation). i know of plenty of people in banking/accounting/finance who bring in their MSI gaming laptop to work and no one said anything to them. The laptop is just a tool to get work done :thumbsup:, albeit a super-fast and sleek one!

2) Duly noted. We definitely always strive to increase the battery life in our notebooks and that option would be a decent way to do that!

3) Yes, we have noticed a lot of feedback regarding the windows key being on the right. However, with the Steelseries engine, you can map the windows key back over the function key (although you lose the function key, as you cannot remap Fn to another key i believe).

 

Hi Geno,

Thanks for the info. I have one more question with regards to the key mapping for you. Is the key mapping persistent/software independent after the change has been made? For example, if I change a key mapping within windows and boot into linux, will the key mapping persist?

 

I believe it's a software mode, so it will not retain the changes unless it's in Windows after the software itself is launched.

 

Thank you.

 

No, I'm sorry, Geno, it really doesn't I pointed out already twice that the pinout corresponds to PCIe and not a normal SATA port. I hate to be a bother but I'd really like to know which physical port and pin layout is used in GT72. It's clearly not standard SATA. So it'd be helpful to know what it is instead, especially for modders...

 

Hmmmm, not sure, but MSI's SuperRAID 3 may have some proprietary aspects, ergo Geno may not be at liberty to discuss this topic fully. I do know it's SATA III, and NOT PCIe, and I find it interesting the other manufacturers have had difficulty duplicating this type of RAID 0 configuration. Such a set-up in PCIe (and supporting M.2's, chipset, and IRST) is still a distant development for notebooks, and when this is achieved, theoretical read times will be more like an astronomical 32Gbs. More good times ahead!

Anyhow, it should be understood by all, Geno is here to answer questions related service, and/or problems end-users are having with their MSI devices. He is not here to answer questions related to OC'ing, modding, upcoming, and unannounced models or hardware...... or anything else not within the scope of the manufacturer's intended use of the product.

 

The answer is they are SATA channels borrowing an existing interface type to make it cheaper to produce (see msata and mini pci-e). Each slot on the m.2 board is a SATA channel straight into the Intel pch just like a port on any notebook or desktop board. It keeps it as simple, fast and consumer friendly as possible.

 

Thank you Meaker, this does answer the question. So they are independent SATA Channels.

 

I have a question for MSI reps:
When do you approx plan to feature 9series chipset from Intel (HM97/QM97)? Or is it talks about using a third party controller to get PCIe support thorugh M2 slot in the high end GT notebooks?

Im sick of SATA3, many SSDs are out or coming soon that supports NVME protocol instead if AHCI with superior speed to SATA3.
Although the Super Raid 3 offer fast sequential read/write, it offer nothing for 64-256kb file sizes which the clear majority of a task consist of. Latency also increase with 3 drives over 1 which further hinder any win against a single fast SSD.

Ton of desktop motherboards have pcie suupprt through native support thorugh 9series chipset from Intel or third party, why isnt MSI offering this for GT72 owners?

 

Yes you can configure some or all in a raid set or have one out of it like any 4 drives on 4 ports.

 

Again, it should be understood by all, Geno is here to answer questions related service, and/or problems end-users are having with their 'existing' MSI devices. He is not here to answer questions related to OC'ing, modding, upcoming, and unannounced models or hardware...... or anything else not within the scope of the manufacturer's intended use of the product.