GX640 Reviewed - Runs Loud and Hot

My 5870 rarely reaches over 82C, it really depends on the luck of the draw. Some people get over 95C while gaming and some people get a max of 78.

 

Oh im not talking in terms of daily jobs mate, just furmark , sorry hehe i should be more specific to the context im applying,

The ASUS G73 temps are great for the hardware in that bundle of love .

Hows price when comparing envy to msi also, haven't actually had a chance to look yet?

 

the envy 15 is much more expensive than the gx640 in north america. They just become comparable because of the HP coupons that seem to come up fairly often

 

Exactly which is why until the everyday retail of the envy matches the MSI you cant fairly compare the two.

 

Yep, if the envy wasn't "on sale" almost every time you see it then comparing it to a GX640 is a ludacrous in terms of sheer price/performance. At standard pricing you would be paying several hundred dollars extra just for a bit better build quality and cooling which much worse performance.

 

Looks like the english review is up. Or am i late to the party?

Notebookcheck: Review MSI GX640-i5447LW7P Notebook

 

Just saw it earlier, actually. I was waiting until I got home to make this post.

I don't think Notebookcheck has very consistant/fair reviews. It looks like they have something against the GX640 in particular. Let's take the noise issue, for example...

I looked up reviews for the Dell Studio XPS 16 and the MSI GX640 because these two models are in the running for me. Granted, the Studio XPS reviewed has a C2D chip, but still... (And yes, I know the performance difference between the two graphics cards is huge, but I have my reasons haha.)

37.1-32.7=4.4

So, essentially, the difference in idle noise from the two laptops is 4.4dB(A), which, as is corroborated by multiple sources (including my later quotes), is somewhat (seeing as it's a logarithmic scale) less than a clearly noticeable difference. But does that small increase in noise really justify the difference quoted above?

44.5-42.1=2.4

A noise difference of 2.4dB(A) is between not noticeable and barely noticeable. Again, these two different reviews offer a dramatically different image of what most people would consider to be a very similar volume.

To me, this is a slap in the face (maybe just a light tap). It's obvious to me that there is some sort of bias going on here. The Dell is obviously preferred over the MSI. It could be just different reviewers, however.

I have, like I'm sure many of you have, read many user reviews of the GX640, and they tend to agree on the noise issue: it can be taken to a quiet library without a problem.

So, remember, never base your decision on a single review.

P.S.
Below are two decibel difference charts taken from different sources.

 

I don't get why people get caught up on furmark benchmarks, it's not like any games out there can stress the graphics as much as the benchmark. Honestly, if the gx640 stays around 85 for most games, it's really good for a single fan system.

 

yea it seems very biased or misinformed. Upon reading some of the reviewer's other reviews he doesn't like noise period.

 

...and that's why I'm now a future owner

 

I still more or less agree with the review. I see nothing wrong with it. I mean the laptop is pretty loud, especially when it goes full throttle. But as I've said before...anyone getting this laptop should get it for the price point. You just can't beat the price for the specs.

 

What is changing my mind on getting this laptop is the screen. On the review the screen is not very bright. The average was somewhere arounf 150 lumes, I am looking for something over 200. But I sure love the price though.

 

Well at this point I think we are arguing more that why in one review is one laptop with marginally less DB's is quiet and the other is "annoyingly loud". Stuff like that is either a biased view, or just 2 different reviews with different standards when it comes to noise.

 

The screen is a bit dim, but overall I didn't find it extremely poor.

 

It's definitely not a bad screen. It is best described in a simple word: average. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing. I think a lot of people take the word average as a negative just because they think everything should be AMAZING or ASTONISHING. It's a serviceable screen that is perfectly fine. As for brightness, we all have our preferences but I tend to keep mine at 60-70% when doing everyday tasks and I find any higher is brighter than I need.

Great points made a page back on the relative sound levels. Going straight from how one person feels in a review that can be extremely exaggerated is never a good idea.

Thanks to these boards I can became WAY TOO AWARE of the fan noise and I think I was psyching myself out to think it was louder than it was. Been using a couple other laptops over the past couple days from friends and family in the past couple days and now realise that the noise level is perfectly fine at low-med load.

 

I actually got used to the screen brightness to the point that I find myself dimming it at times now; and that was one of my original complaints.

 

Actually the 2nd gen Envy stays cool to the touch while gaming. Have you even read reviews or owner impressions? NBR mod Pitabred gamed for hours and it was still cool enough to sit comfortably on his lap. And the MSI does not stay cool to the touch, it gets warm in alot of areas and even unbearably hot on the palm rests under load. Did you even read the review?

 

Fanboy alert? Tons of 2nd gen envy owners have saide that the bottom panel gets extremely hot on the bottom so they couldn't game on their laps, thus why they wanted to test out the MSI GX640. The MSi does get quite hot when gaming but calling it unbearably hot on the palm rests is an exaggeration.

 

Oh sorry I forgot to clarify, I meant i5 2nd Gen Envys, the i7 do get warm for the lap under load (still not as hot as the GX640 though).

Oh an exaggeration? I will say this again. READ THE REVIEW. Yea the one posted on the original page of this thread. Under load (not gaming, I didn't say gaming, they are not the same) the palm rests got unbearably hot. Read the Heat and Emissions section of the review. *facepalm*

 

I already read the review, and I don't go off of one review when I can compare it to my experience and the experience of other owners of the laptop. I bet you defended the envy when notebookcheck gave it a 60% saying it was a poor laptop.

We've already discussed how articles from notebookcheck are to be taken with a grain of salt and we've already pointed out how they exaggerated of 37 db.

 

I have a GX640, and I have never had occasion to call any part of the laptop "unbearably hot". The very term itself is subjective by definition, because someone has to do the "bearing".

Also, "cool to the touch" is an obvious exaggeration for the Envy 15; it clearly warms up under load.

 

*tactical facepalm*

Notebookcheck gave it a 60%?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-HP-Envy-15-Notebook.22272.0.html

The temps posted were the temps. I guess you can "take that with a grain of salt" but it doesn't change anything. I'm just glad you realize that it runs hot and you've stopped trying to refute common knowledge.

Look, if you have a GX640 and are happy with it, good for you. I'm not going to come here and say HEY HEY HEY....DONT BUY IT. It's a great laptop for the price and the 5850 is a beast. If you don't mind not being able to game on your lap and warm palmrests, it's definitely a good buy.

 

I said cool to the touch while gaming (I'm speaking the i5 version). After an extensive session of gaming it has reported warm up a little. But nowhere near the Gx640 levels. But nice I didn't know you had one? Hows it treating ya?

 

ur link is broken, and perhaps I misread a while ago? I don't know. I never said the internals weren't hot but saying palm rests are unbearable is exaggerated and biased. i've used a lot of laptops and none of them have had unbearable palm rests. What I just find wrong is the usage of language to portray such a strong tone when it doesn't serve any purpose but to persuade instead of give an objective perspective.

 

Hmm link works for me, either way, they gave it a 83% (and that's the first Gen version)

 

Gaming is definitely a form of load; it's generally one of the most taxing things you will do on your computer, because most other applications don't really load the GPU and the GPU is a major source of heat on a gaming laptop.

I would like to see an objective comparison of the GX640 and Envy 15 when it comes to temperatures, but no such comparison exists. I have seen people report both being warm to the touch, although the Envy's internal temps are definitely much lower (but who knows how it would be with the 5850?). Also, as far as I know, it's also best not to use either on your lap when putting significant load on both the CPU and GPU, because both have air intakes on the bottom.


As for my GX640, so far it has maxed out every game I've thrown at it (granted, I need to find some more demanding games), and it has been a pleasure to use.

The keyboard and screen could definitely be better, but I've never really been troubled by either. As far as heat goes on the outside, the body of the laptop is fine, though one keep one's hands out of the way of the vent on the right side.

The internal temps can be higher than I'd like at times, but I've never seen the GX640 experience heat-related throttling or shutdown.

 

Guys, guys, guys...

Envy runs cooler,
GX runs games a LOT better.
end of story plz.

Boil your nuts? no, use a damn board on your lap.

 

It's pretty surprising that they gave the GX640 81% considering their criticisms. It seems that that's a weighted average of a bunch of ratings for various aspects, though.

 

I think this is the one he was in reference to Notebookcheck: HP Envy 15-1130ef


And personally for me HP's lack of customer service in regards to the nvidia 8x00 series failures is what keeps me away from them. I mean they offered to sell me at a "discount" of $400 this POS Notebookcheck: HP Pavilion G60-438nr... I dont find the total failure of my then $1500 laptop just barely out of warranty comparable to a $500 no discrete graphics card junk laptop. I would never buy HP again. And MSI's 3 year warranty is to good to pass up frankly.

 

True, gaming is a type of load but I meant load as in full load (programs like Prime95 and Cinebench, should have clarified though). Running those the i5 Envies maxed out at about 70 C.

glad you like your laptop so far though. Yea I hear that throttling issues are pretty much nonexistent despite the temps. Have you tried modding the internals for better temps and possible overclocking?

 

kosti did some mods not by adding, but by removing;
he has amazing temps, running @ 5870 clocks...
its really promising
the only downside for me + gx640/740 is that i live in tropical climate...
I'd have to extremely mod it to get a cool cool cool temp...

 

"Full load" in that sense is only CPU load, which, when you have a GPU that eats more power than the CPU, is much less taxing than gaming.

I've just been running 4 threads of Prime95 for 20 minutes, and my CPU has hit a maximum of 78/76 degrees Celsius for the CPU - not worrying in the least. The fan is definitely somewhat loud when doing this, but it doesn't disturb me.

Pretty much any game will get the CPU in the GX640 hotter than Prime95 will, because of the additional heat generated by the GPU. The closest you can get to "full load" is running Prime95 and FurMark at the same time, which I do admit I wouldn't want to do for more than a few minutes on my GX640.

As for modding, I'm tempted to do it after kosti's spectacular results, but I want to keep my warranty intact, and it would suck if I screwed something up and ended up without warranty coverage to boot. I've been thinking about what the optimal strategy would be in this regard, since I'll be going back to Australia later this year and over there I'll only have the single-year global warranty rather than the awesome three-year U.S. warranty.

 

Dear L3vi,

As of palmrest heat - I never experienced hot left palmrest. Only right hand palmrest is noticeably hotter when cpu stays heavy loaded for longer time. And this is because the CPU is sitting right beneath this right palmrest.

OK now tell me the situation where I put a lot of load on my cpu and still keep typing? Rendering images/videos? more? 99% of the time I am typing (thus keeping my both hands on palmrests) I do it in some sort of chat program/internet browser/text editor. When I am gaming - I use my right for mouse so right palmrest is not bothering me.

I bought my GX640 for gaming - and I use table for gaming. Browsing/chatting/watching movies on my lap does not involve any demanding tasks so I have no problems with heat as most of the bottom is only slightly warm (except the small area around air vent - but that's reasonable).

I understand you, L3vi, that using apple products for extensively long time affects your mind somehow so one's able to see one product only (next mac). I congratulate you for being able to see a bit further. But one step (seeing only HP) is just not enough.

Everyone picks a notebook for his needs. If you need a toy-looking notebook with limited gaming possibilities and you want to game exclusively on your lap, please buy hp. I want more performance and I'm ready to sacrifice my ability to play on the lap (which is utterly uncomfortable) for better experience.

 

*put most epic facepalm you have ever witnessed here*

Molius, would you just kindly stop talking. Please. Did you even read my previous posts? god damn, for a forum there are alot of people here who can't read. I clearly said that if you don't mind gaming on a table and slightly warm palm rests and underside, you should be fine with the GX640. Just read before you post, seriously. My gawd, READ, just READ. Please. Really. It's not that hard.

 

Somehow I see the difference between 'slightly warm' and 'unbearably hot'.
Do you?

 

And I see the difference between load (Cinebench, Prime, Furmark) and gaming. Can we just drop this. This is going in circles. Just read what was said before and I think you'll get it. I hope.

 

Levi your pointlessly posting now because you can't seem to get it into your head that the Load comparisons, especially when using a GPU as powerful as it is, is hot,

Well heres the solution,

Guys drop the gx640 down into power saver and then you get equal footings ^^.

From using it, i've found the right side gets to arm temperature (Not hotter) and the underside can get toasty,

And if were comparing first gen models, we can easily pull out the envy equivalent to first gen...

 

What Mr. Molius is trying to say is that I said the palmrests are unbearably hot while gaming, which isn't true. But when the GPU and CPU (using Cinebench and Furmark I think) were stressed by Notebookcheck (what they use for load I believe), they reported the palmrests were "unbearably" hot. That's what I'm going by.

Conclusion: The GX640 should be fine on your lap for normal usage, and while gaming it should be kept on a table but the palmrests become warm, but still tolerable.

 

Yeah you go by that, but your the only one that seems to not know how much complete trash is on notebookcheck lol, if you believe it then you sir are not so "bright".

The palmrests are not Unbearably hot, the underside is i can tell you that now but im not suprised, its venting, even my machine the 725 underside gets hot (Although the palmrest temperatures stay the same)

Ambience can effect this, but a combined wrist + CPU/Northbridge directly impacting the palmrest will make it "Hot".

Again the evidence presented by notebookcheck has some accuracy behind it, but its aload of junk...truly.

 

Hahaha and that image bomb never gets old. Gotta love Picard and Numba 1.

 

Haha indeed, tis brilliant .