16f2 with 580m mini review and some gap info

this forum is super helpful so i wanted to return the favor and offer info i found out about the laptop and share my experience. i am coming off a msi 1656-id1 with the 5850 and i7 620m with 8 gig 1333 and 2ng gen intel ssd 160gb

i ordered from xotic , ordered monday, received it thursday-- that team is great, good communication and they get it done. machine was custom and delivered as expected with all parts exactly the way i wanted it. they called me to make sure they understood the order, and called again to confirm they shipped it. very happy overall- no disrespect to gentech or rk, but xotic had the option for a rush build which is why i chose to order from them. i had a short window of time before a trip, and xotic was the only one that offered a rush option in the web order form.

the new rig is 2760qm 8 gig stock 1333 ram, 580m, 3 drives-- samsung 830ssd 256, caviar black 7200rpm 750gb, hitachi 5400 rpm 750gb.
i swapped ram for 16 gig of 1600 after purchase. edit: new ram is 1.3v
i swapped out the wifi/bluetooth combo after purchase for a intel 6300 3-wire nic and added my own antenna

the laptop is super fast overall. runs hot-- ambient is 21-28c and the machine cpu sits at 39-44c with some programs opened in the backround (not true "idling") . after gaming for 1.5-2 hours, the cpu tops out around 90c; gpu around 85c. gpu is overclocked to 720/1850 cpu is not overclocked. everything is default voltage and i am not using any external cooling device like a desk fan or window fan or active cooling pad.

what i learned:

1) 1600 ram seems to be recognized by the default bios-- i have seen posts stating the stock bios does Not run memory at 1600, but my cpuz says otherwise. this was plug and play. i swapped ram, rebooted and cpuz shows 800/1600. either cpuz is busted or the ram is running that speed. for those that are curious if 16gb is overkill or worth it, for me (gaming and browsing/web dev with 20-40 tabs) there is no perceivable difference between 8 gb at 1333 and 16gb at 1600. BF3 fps are a couple of frames higher, but i can't say i can "feel" the difference. battery life may have improved a hint since the new memory is 1.3v, but again i can;t really feel alot of difference after a couple of weeks of daily business meetings in a conf room- i can do 2, 1-hour meetings , but the third meeting i need a plug....thats before and after memory swap. i am not pist.... it was 90 bux to upgrade so not much gain for not much money, but if you are tight on cash that money is probably better spent on an ssd if you don't have one. this is the specific memory model i got ( i got 2 kits). i can post cpuz screenshot if anyone really wants to see the 1600 speed Newegg.com - ADATA XPG Gaming Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model AXDS1600GC4G9-2
Optimum Solution for Low Voltage Laptop Memory, Order Info., Overclocking, Gaming, Memory Modules, OC, Gaming Series (Laptop), Gaming Series (Laptop), XPG, Welcome to ADATA

i would be interested in other utilities which report memory speed which you trust so i can get a second data point on the mem speed, to confirm what cpuz is showing.


2) Heat/Goop -- laptop came with IC compound by default. The compound was applied gingerly/sparingly and resulted in stock temp about 7C higher than what i have today. i reapplied Arctic Silver 5 in generous quantity for gpu and cpu and this dropped me about 7c. i think the laptop the way i have it setup, just runs hot. i am sure part of the reason are my 2 hard drives and ssd, which never turn off or stop spinning as well as the fire-hot intel 6300. i don't think the vendor purposely tried to skimp on the thermal compound, i just think those cooling solution blocks are not built perfect and some are a hint warped and may need more goop to close the gap on some builds. if you try and level either copper block, it's not straight/level. shims may help, but i am into using my pc not building infinitely.... i am also pretty sure stock config with 1-2 harddrives and a 2 wire nic run cooler, instead of what i have..that 6300 can fry quail eggs when maxed out, and the wd black drive is not a beer cooler either...

3) Fan Speeds- i have seen posts claiming the fan cannot be set lower than 30% on 16f2 with 580m. I found that the limitation is driven by the Nvidia bios, the bios dictates minimum 30% fan speed, if it detects less than that it will shut down or reboot. you maybe able to edit the bios to remove this limitation, but obviously do so at your own risk. i have no idea if the 570m has the same bios limitation- don't have that card to try

4) 3 wire Wifi -- i have seen posts claiming bad reception/interference etc etc when using 3 antenna nics. in my experience i have not run into anything like this. i dropped in an old intel 6300, i had around and put in my own 3rd antenna, under the left side of the upper grill, since the special msi buttons on that side don't work anyway (the actual button block is missing completely). i now connect at 450 mbit from 20 feet an thru an apartment wall. throughput is 15-30 megabytes per sec when copying files to my server. 5 gigs transferred in 5 minutes. incidentally i tested 3 routers, cisco e3000, cisco e4200v2 and asus n66-u. the asus at least doubles the real-world throughput of the next best router i have which is the 4200v2. i wish there was a 3 wire card that did 450mbit and had bluetooth.....

overall very happy with purchase, machine is way faster than my previous 1656-id1. it is super cool to have 3 drives inside, this allows for a small fast ssd and another cheap 1.5 tb inside. i would buy the 16f2 again knowing what i know now, would buy from xotic again, i liked their service and hustle.

NOTE: the bios i got is dated October 2011 - edit: bios dated september. the EC i got is dated November or December (need to verify) 2011. if anyone wants a dump of this stuff (there are a few different ones floating around) just let me know.

1 Minor question: has anyone else run into issues with the 16f2 with right side usb port not properly identifying all the devices you plug into it? i can charge my phone off that port, but usb sticks are not detected on that side. no biggies was just wondering if "it's just me"

feel free to ask any other questions, i'll try to help anyone i can !

special thanks to Svet from msi forums, and from nbr, pherein, hacktrix, mechrock, meaker and all the other awesome people helping figure out everything laptop.

Best

D

 

For the USB detection problem try uninstalling the phone charger and reinstall the Intel Chipset software v9.3.0.1020

intel drivers pour chipsets

Most likely most of your other drivers are outdated also.

Dealers only install the ones from MSI that are very old.

The phone charging app will drain the battery even when a phone is not using it.

Links to drivers are in this post.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...t780-gt783-owners-lounge-498.html#post8177509

 

thanks dude, the machine did not come with an os, so i built myself. all the drivers are new, but i did install the msi icharger app after i installed the chipset drivers so thats probably it- good call and thanks for the tip!

best

D

 

cpuz/hwmonitor attached

 

Very great nit review.
Slightly high temps to me but I guess it's normal might wait for a little while so that the components run a bit cooler.