\/\/\/\/\/\- The Official MSI GT60-2OD Owner's Lounge -/\/\/\/\/\/

GT70 probably should've opted for 2 fans, but based on my experiences so far the single fan on the GT60 is sufficing for most of games. Lower intensity games (Darksiders, Alice MR) only mush my CPU/GPU into 70-80 without turbo, and easily go to around 60 if I have turbo fan on. Battlefield 3 pushes the CPU into 90+ and GPU to 85~, but turbo fan will bring this back down to about 70-80 for both.

I honestly don't see how 2 fans could fit in this chassis, but hey. MSi GT chassis has always been a point of controversy, but in my opinion it's one of the better ones out there. Alienware's too flashy for me. It has too many lights that beg for attention. Clevo on the other hand looks like an old "brick" laptop, with the exception being that the keyboard can light up. MSi has this weird rounded corner bulky design. Could it be better? Sure. Does it work right now? imo yes. It's got some curves and edges that define it (and in practical use, I think that rounded corners are more useful than sharp edges) and has the flashy aspect covered with ONLY the keyboard lighting up. Call me weird, but to me the chassis has a slight streamlined look while feeling like a tank, and for a gaming laptop that's designed to be mobile, it feels like it and can take a few hits. Maybe I'm just crazy

Other things: Coming from a guy who's relatively inexperienced with servicing laptops; how would one go about cleaning this thing? Fan, keyboard, touchpad (sometimes things fall between the cracks like dust bits or what not) and what not. Probably not an issue now, but I'll probably have to do this down the line at one point ^_^

 

They all have that problem out of the box unless you have the thermal repasted before it ships to you (depending where you are buying it from). They exagerate with those temps, those machines are rock solid if you know how to tweak them a bit. Nothing these days you get it perfect, you have to meddle with it a bit to have what you are looking for.

I found this machine's performance and quality exceeding our expectation + its lighter then any other machine out there with this specs and hardware under the hood. I have no regrets getting this system and I would have bought it all over again if I had to start over. Sometimes stories are exagerated and unless you experience yourself the true story, you do not know the actual truth.

 

Yeah, I was rereading my G51J and I was happpy to only get 97C out of the GPU instead of 102C LOL hahaha. Those sure ran hot! And loud for that.

Buy some cans of compressed air, and some computer cleaning wipes. At least once a month, with the laptop turned off etc and battery out, clean vents and crevasses with the can of compressed air. The wipes will help remove the dust on top, around chasis etc.

As for the single fan vs dual fan, if you think about it, the dual fans are doing the exact same thing this single fan is doing, when you remove the thermal bridge from the equation. Dual fan solutions are aligned to have the air being blown out of them to the exterior. This single fan simply pushes more airflow to do the same work. Previous iterations of this laptop had all cooler running temps. My HD5870m was even notorious to run at low temps. My 680m too ran around 80 degrees when gaming. I am sure the thermal bridge is hurting more than helping since it directly connects both CPU and GPU cores directly, and the cooling is happening at the other opposite end. When both get taxed, they share the temps and add them, while the fan runs at low speed.

Well said

 

I am a clean freak about my laptops/electronics. I tend to take very good care of them. My laptops see a dust can every week or more. I usually blow out the keyboard, exhausts, and screen. Once in awhile, maybe once every couple months I will wipe it down with a damp towel, and then dry with a microfiber towel/cloth so nothing gets scratched up. I also do this to the screen if it has marks on it.

The keyboard usually stays clean from the dust cans, but sometimes I'll clean between the keys with soft cotton q tips. Removes any build up, and keep the keyboard looking new.

 

I agree that Anadtech seemed to get a hot running laptop. I just ran skyrim on max settings with VSYNC off, and I was only getting max of 30-40% CPU usage with stock GPU/CPU clocks and turbo fan off. In outdoor scenes with ALL graphics options maxed, I was getting about 70-80 FPS, significantly above the 57.8 observed by Anadtech. I'm running Nvidia driver 320.20 (modded .inf) -- the newer drivers seem to be more optimized, and gave me 3dMark 11 scores of a few hundred higher than running with v. 311.

My 3dMark 11 was about the same though as the review though, around 7550 stock.

 

Where did you get those drivers?

 

32x Series GeForce Driver release - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

 

mmh. Any idea when the official releases might come 'round?

 

NVIDIA usually supports new GPUs within a couple of weeks

 

Does anyone know if the HDMI port is through iGPU? What about the thunderbolt port?

I'm looking to get the GT60 (or GE60) for 3d/photoshop, however since I use it on a 2nd display it's important to have it run off the GPU. Can optimus be switched off or is it again muxed?

Cheers

 

Don't think I'll be able too, at least not within the next week. Have to fly out to Michigan- family thing came up and I'm just bringing my little travel laptop. Sorry!

 

Just ordered the MSI GT60 2OD-026US with 780. Added the free repasting of CPU/GPU and free 30 dead pixel warranty. Got a 128 msata drive and no secondary hdd as I have one to throw in there. All configured $1969 no tax and free shipping. Has the super raid 2 adapter for future upgrades. Ordered from Gentech.

One last question, the only difference between the GT60 and 70 is the screen size correct?

 

Pretty much.

 

Yes the only difference is the size of the entire laptop. The GT is a bigger guy. You will love your new machine, when you see what this machine can do, you will think while looking at it, this tiny thing has so much power...

Little bit of update on the cooling system... So I decided to take the heatsinks apart (since I was getting very high temperatures for the CPU at idle). I had ordered long ago from FrozenCPU thermal pads and replaced the original ones, also received yesterday the IC Diamond thermal paste. Unfortunately the CPU had only on half of the die thermal paste and that is why was at about 60 degrees Celsius when I was doing nothing on this thing. I guess it is a bit my fault because I rushed them to ship it the same day. You may want to pay attention to this Acapella75...

Now in a room of about 22 degrees Celsius, I get at idle on both quite constant 48-50 degrees which is really good. I have also updated the driver to 320.20 (thanks to Lava6000 for providing the link) and it seams to be very stable in most of games. Unfortunately I haven't tried much of gaming, but in GRiD 2 I got at max settings about 80-82 without turbo on and I believe that is more than great. I've noticed that the CPU never goes above the 65 degrees. You may want to pay attention to those thermal pads and have them replaced. I do not know why every company uses the same rubbish cheap thermal pads... FrozenCPU sells them in a form of a large foil and I think it is 0.5 mm. If anyone interested to buy, I can look on their website and provide the exact link of what I have got.

Another thing, I have used 2 types of thermal paste (paste it already 2 times) to see if there is any difference in the temperature and I haven't noticed anything different. The 2 thermal paste I have used are IC Diamond and GC Extreme. The silver thermal 'foil' (that you apply on the die of the CPU and GPU), the one I spoke about few posts back it is not enough for the GPU. It is too thin and it does not make a proper contact between the die and the sink. But for the CPU it makes wonders, it keeps it cool and quite

I was thinking of putting 2 of those thermal foils (it is like a thermal paste but in a form of a thin pad, in case anyone is wondering and doesn't know what I am talking about), but it will be a bit difficult since is very think and most probably will have air bubbles in between... I will leave it like that for few days and if the temperature does not rise anymore than what I get now, I should just keep enjoying this rig and stop messing with it

 

THe HDMI is set as dGPU. This cannot be changed, I have tried.

erikranger

 

Hey felix,

Santa arrive lastnight !!!! yuuuuupi!

 

My first post kind of got buried.

I'm thinking of picking up one of these and was wondering two things:

1. Is there a good docking station for these guys that anyone would recommend?
2. The audio out ports ... do they support a dual connection (for external speakers like a Klipsch set)?

I typed it big this time so someone sees it.

 

Nice temps! I have idles around 42 when doing nothing, and around 52 when using webpages, steam open in the background forcing the GPU On, and my GPU sits at between 38 and 44. I think I will get new thermal pads to replace the installed ones and see whats up, at least to keep everything properly cooled

Grats mate, good to hear your luggage was recovered

 

Great mate
Glad to hear that. I'm happy for you!!
I hate it when things like that happen. I've been through myself and I can understand the frustration...
Enjoy your little beast

Got a pair of 120x20 1mm Phobya XT 7mw/k pads and IC7 ready once I get mine this saturday

I've been researching some heatsink mods I can make to lower temps a bit.
If you increase surface area, you won't get much results unless there's a way to remove the heat and cool down the copper. The heatsink in this case acts as a heat tank, storing more heat than before. Maybe a copper fan grill connecting directly to the gpu heatpipes above the fan intake
Need more knowledge

 

So hdmi is out of dedicated? That's exactly what I need it to be on. Cheers.

 

Do you guys have noticed any throttling issues like AnandTech mentionned for the GT70 Dragon Edition ?

While gaming, how do your GT60 behave ?

 

Its nice to see when we all try to find a solution. I tried all kind of sizes in copper cooling pads to stick them and see if there is any result possible, better then what we are getting right now... Unfortunately that will not solve the problem; the issue is that we have 2 powerful hardware devices congested in one area and there is not enough room to give it a proper ventilation. If I had a spare back cover I would have drilled some holes under the hood and see if that helps in anyway.

Because it will suck the cold air from below and throw it up towards those 2 sinks. Now it is kind of mixed because the air that this fan rotates it is all warm and there isn't much of cooling solution. I have a usb fan lying somewhere in the house, I will hook it on one side of the vent (it has some adjustable clips) and see if that helps, while it will throw cold air inside and the main fan of the system will circle it around... I will keep you guys updated about this

 

There are no docking stations for gaming laptops. Usb 3.0 docking stations have a basic internal gpu for the video, using one would not allow you to use the laptop graphics card. They do not support 3D gaming.

There is a speaker out and headphone out which are both active at the same time. Also bluetooth. Not sure what connections your speakers need.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

I believe that any notebook that implements Optimus has the video through the iGPU. I could be wrong this time around, since Matrix display allows up to 4 total Monitors.

Not temperatures nearly as high as their review. Most users have between 80 and 90 degrees temp. Anand reached basically 100 or so. I personally have between 80 and 90 degrees temp without turbofan and on high ambient temp.

 

I use the cooler boost setting whenever I game, and I havent seen my temps go above 80 - in any game on any settings for any amount of time. Thats 20C less than what AnandTech reported.
I need to get my hands on the PC version of Crysis 3, will probably get that in a week or two.

 

I bit the bullet and bought a Samsung 840 Pro.

I will be selling the Sandisk mSATA ($135) and the Western Digital($65) drives. I also have a Samsung 830 128gb for sale ($85).

PM if you are interested in either of these.

 

If I was you, I would keep those 2 (the msata and the hdd); God forbid if you have a problem and you have to send your system to MSI, it will void your warranty. Just for making 100-200 now, you will end up spending much more for the parts you will need to replace. Think twice about it

 

In cooler boost mode, any idea how loud the system gets? Would it make more sense to get a cooling pad? I never tried one, just curious.

 

This. I am keeping my 4700mq just for this reason. The $200-250 I might be able to get out of it isn't worth the possibility of losing my 3 years of warranty if I have to put it back in for a warranty claim.

 

Thanks. I would really use the docking station for working mostly. I really wanted to buy just ONE computer to work and play on so I didn't have to have two machines. When I'm docked I'll just be using it to emulate UNIX/LINUX ssh connections, outlook, Browsers, etc (basic IT work) so the graphics won't be that important.

I have an older Klipsch speaker 5.1 set that has two output connections that I plug into my current gaming rig's soundblaster card.

 

i just got my computer yesterday and have gotten everything i needed and it plays lost planet 1&2 at max settings 60fps without going over 84 C, but when i try to play league of legends i get between 7-12 to 60. But it is just unplayable due to the lag patches that happen every 20 seconds or so. Is this common? And when will the drivers be out for the 780m (kinda wondering cause i think that might be my problem.) Im not the most technically savy person but i ususally can get through things with google and common sense. But this is driving me crazy. Also how do beta drivers work? How do you download them and should i get any other drivers on my computer?

 

getting my gt60 2od-026us today ^_^
i hope i dont get any Factory defect Problems )

 

Sounds like the dGPU is not being used, go to nvidia control panel and enable this game to use the GTX 780M, it's more than enough to play LoL. Sounds like the Intel 4600HD is being used. On your power button there is a light, if it glows WHITE the Intel graphics are being used, if it glows or ORANGE then the nVidia card is being used when gaming.

 

While I agree with you, I still believe that we have a very weak driver at the moment (more like a beta). But as far as I am aware, NVidia is on top of it and we should have a release soon enough. Normally it takes about 3-4 weeks for NVidia to release a stable driver, it should be due anytime...

 

Hmm even still LoL isn't a terribly strenuous game at all, and the intel 4600 is actually quite powerful (according to some benchmarks it's about as good as a 550/555m) So dropping to 7-12 seems pretty drastic, unless it's a driver issue with the 4600.

 

That, also make sure its not on power saver and you have your power adapter plugged in.

 

For me, every time the computer accessed the HDD, I would see a 2 - 3 second stutter in performance while gaming. I would hear the HDD kick on (yeah, the fan is that quiet). I had all my games on the HDD while the system on mSATA. I upgraded to a single SSD and I do not experience that issue at all anymore.

By chance did you install your games on the HDD?

erikranger

 

Got mine today!! let the fun begin

 

Hmmm how odd, I do play League of legends maxed out wthout issues at 70ish temps. I don't have lagspikes nor fps drops even after 4 or 5 games in a row. Since I run on stock, make sure you are running on your dedicated GPU. You can check if you are by noticing the LED light on your Power button. Light color is for integrated, orange/reddish is for dedicated GPU.

Next step is to monitor utilization. I have noticed MSI afterburner tends to crash some games, so I use GPUz with log function.

 

It probably gets turned off by power management. You could edit the power profile to make it always on.

Congartz and welcome to the club!

 

Good call, I did not think about that, and that is probably why it happened to me. I no longer have that issue with the new SSD.

I bought a 840 pro, and the battery life is now AMAZING; Power Saver at about 30 - 40% brightness, I see 6+ hours on battery now. Before, I would only come close to 5 hours. Yesterday, I checked to see how much life was left, it had 84% and said 8 hours and 29 minutes!!! My Ultrabook or Tablet does not give me those kind of readings!.

I am more and more pleased with this thing daily!

Erikranger

 

Wow that's really awesome

 

Any improvements make a larger difference since the battery capacity is so large.

 

My computer stays on the dedicated graphics. I also am going to try with disabling the Intel graphics just to see if it was just going back and forth. Also i am used to a desktop, and this was my first laptop so i don't know what i should do for power profiles.

 

You can't disable the intel graphics without an unlocked bios and then your internal screen and VGA will be disabled too (since they go through the IGP).

 

Can someone please confirm that owns the system that you can run HDMI out and use both iGPU and then the dGPU? I'm interested in running this on my 1440p 27" monitor and hopefully use the iGPU for non gaming. Is it possible? Only real doubt I have on this.


Be a good way to keep noise and heat levels down just using the intel GFX. As 90% of the time with will be connected to my monitor if I get it. Looking to replace my hot and noisy desktop with a 780M notebook beast.


GPU is MXM and up-gradable in the future too?

 

Not 100% sure but I think the HDMI out uses the dGPU only, but it should be fine for non-gaming tasks since it runs fairly quiet and cool when not gaming even with the dGPU.

 

I totally recommend everyone who has got this system to reinstall windows. By default (Since MSI only clones those drives), all the drivers have a lot of issues and they don't perform as they should be, some of them they do not even load (programs / drivers / utilities) and you have to reinstall them.

In case you decide to reinstall windows / drivers / utilities (Also the bios installed in this system is older then the one on their website; you can install it direct from bios setup without going through the pain of creating a usb flash drive, etc.; however if you do not know how to update your bios, you should stay away from it especially if you have no issues with your system):

Drivers and utilities located here: MSI Global GT60 2OD

You will also need the Creative Sound Cinema and you can download it from here MSI Global – Download Center

 

How is the mSATA SSD that comes with these things? I've heard some bad things and would rather get a Samsung Pro 840 but it seems kind of cost-ineffective to pay for the mSATA just to replace it.

 

I had this problem, but a factory restore that I did ended up fixing it. (Although I did not to the factory restore to fix it, I did it for another reason).