MSI GS30 Revealed

Well they arrived today so we'll be able to find out for sure soon

 

OMG DO IT FAST!!! I AM WAITING.

Mind checking these things out?
1)Do the laptop USB ports work when docked?
2)Can the laptop powered using the laptop charger when docked?
3)SLI cards.
4)CPU bottleneck?
5)Unity Benchies please

 

Also will the 3.5" bay accept WD 6TB Red/Green.

 

first 2 points are great questions. I assumed both should be yes but we better confirm

SLI cards won't work unless they are single PCB, and not use liquid cooling haha.

CPU is hardly a bottleneck. In the previous review, the laptop was competing head to head against a desktop Core i7 4770K and even beating it in gaming at some point.

 

Gonna try to get these answer for you by the end of the day.

 

I was wondering if TITAN Z will bottleneck CPU

 

Nah, I mean it is possible that it won't reach full potential, but it is not exactly a bottleneck in a negative way. I mean, there is ALWAYS a bottleneck: If you had a super faster CPU, then your GPU would be the bottleneck etc.

But it should be fine. The CPU won't be the cause for having an unplayable game. It will be the cause of pushing 125fps instead of 130fps haha

 

Will you buy this one too ?lol

 

Statement from MSI from their forums:

 

Means usb should work. Gotta wait for Hutsady

 

1. Yes notebook USB do still work when docked.
2. Yes you can directly charge the notebook through the dock. Verified by unplugging the AC Adapter and the indicator says charging.
3. No SLI cards as in 2x physical cards as there is only one slot available in the dock.
4. Bottleneck is going to depend on application, the i7-4870HQ should handle most you throw at it.
5. Benchmark results will depend on what GPU you decide to put in the dock.

 

Thanks for posting that.

I'd like to see it expanded to other models, such as the GS60. Laptop graphics can be obsolete in a relatively short time, but the rest of the laptop can still be quite usable (i.e. Ivy Bridge GT60 and 70, for example). This can extend the life of some nice notebooks without having to upgrade as often. That may go against MSI's interests though.

 

2) I meant can the laptop be powered using both dock+charger to provide extra juice for gpu?
3) does titan z work? I was referring to this one particularly

 

2. You can have the charger plugged in at the same time when it is docked. There is nothing to tell if this is helping any though.
3. Unfortunately we do not have any Titan Z on hand to try.

 

2. I guess only a TITAN Z juice bottleneck when laptop charger is not plugged in will confirm this.
3.Damn. I always imagined Xotic HQ to be heaven with all cards/SSDs/GPUs/MXMs just waiting there to be plugged at moment's calling. Got another dual GPU single PCB card mate?

Thanks for all the info though.

 

I thought the dock had a 450W power supply of its own?

 

It has but that may be low for powering a gtx titan z+laptop

 

We do keep a lot of stuff on hand, but for the parts that are not selected much we only order in as needed. No other dual GPU single PCB on hand

 

Sorry if this is a noob question.
Suppose I buy a Radeon R295x2 for the dock, what to do with the external fan thingy?

 

Do you have a dremel?

 

You mean to say you guys at Xotic will actually cut the dock to fit in the 295x2? Talk about customer service

 

They likely weren't thinking when they put that card as an option. The web guys aren't necessarily incredibly knowledgeable about hardware and specs concerning them, just do as they're told. Having seen the dock that's the only way I see of that particular card working. It's not beyond our skill set to do by any means, but we'd probably call you before hand and make sure you want us making that modification before we actually do it.

 

I think I'll wait for GTX 990 then as my current laptop is more powerful than Intel 5200 and GTX TITAN Z costs an arm and a leg.

 

R9 295x2 uses liquid cooling solution, so you can't fit such a powerful GPU just like that.

 

Questions for anyone able to answer:

If I have a HDD or SSD in the dock, with some kind of Windows or Linux installed on it (ideally this would all be UEFI), can the machine boot from that drive instead of the internal SSD's?
Would it be possible to purchase a second dock for the same machine at a later date?

Thanks!

 

Does this work with an ROG Swift?

 

Connected to the dock GPU no problem at all.

 

I don't see why you couldn't install another OS on the dock HDD/SSD.
My guess is that if this thing sells as well as MSI hopes, and they do follow through on plans to include it in other notebooks, you SHOULD be able to buy another dock. All my own conjecture though.

 

Single GPU or Double GPU single PCB?

 

Hope it sells well. I will definitely buy something like this for college this fall.

 

Thinking about this for college too. Need to decide between this and the P34G/W from Gigabyte, which DO contain dedicated graphics and similar CPUs, weighing in around 3.8lbs, if I remember correctly. Thats still more than a pound heavier (and I assume thicker) than the GS30.

The main factor would be playing games only in my room, or not. I have friends here that I would certainly like to game with, and it would definitely be more fun locally in the same room, screaming at each other.

How capable is the Iris Pro? I usually play less intensive games with friends (CSGO, Minecraft, Dayz), but there are AAA (read: intensive) big releases this year I would definitely wanna play with my friends too (GTA V/Online, The Divison, etc.).

 

Both are great machines.
Iris pro is crap. It will probably not be able to run AAA games of 2015.
You'll need the dock for that.
Considered the G35X? It has great battery life for classes and can max out everything.

PS:Just curious, which school? I am going to Purdue.

 

They say Iris pro is similar to a GT 650m from nvidia. I have a 750m with DDR3 that should perform similarly, and I can play games like League of legends and 1080 res medium graphics at near 60fps easily. Older games and less demanding games at lower resolutions should be fine for the iris pro.

For your college situation, i'd definitely consider it. You get up to 5 hours on the go for work/school usage, and then you can game full performance back at your room without issues.

 

I currently own dual GT 650Ms in Y500, both overclocked to match a single GTX 770m. Just asking, should I stick with this for sometime?

 

I ran 3DMark Firestrike on the Iris Pro and was averaging 4-5FPS, 3DMark 11 was averaging 8-12FPS. However more basic benchmarks like 3DMark Ice Storm did well and averaged 350-400FPS.

It will come down to what games you play, but to get playable FPS you'll prob have to knock down game settings a bit.

 

Here are a few benchmark scores and ranking for reference.
1. notebookcheck.net
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 - NotebookCheck.net Tech
2. passmark
PassMark - Intel Iris Pro 5200 - Price performance comparison

 

I'm out here in California at UC Santa Cruz. Which brand is the G35X? I googled G35X laptop and doesn't come up with anything conclusive. Battery life is not too much of an issue for me, as long as anything lasts 3 hrs internet browsing, I'm fine. Weight/size and performance are probably my two biggest concerns, wanting a good balance between them and also price...

For all you commenting on Iris Pro, I wouldn't mind knocking down details (I can stand lowest on most games), but I usually like to keep resolution native, but that's just my preference. I would think (someone help me out here) that Iris pro (so like a 650m/750m) could run 2015 AAA games at minimum details at 1080p? For the Notebook check benchmarks, the Low settings are thrown down to 768 or 720p.

Besides just the graphics card though, the GS30 is at least 200-300 more than the Gigabyte P34W v3, and even more over the P34G v2. I'm wondering if around a pound of weight will make much of a difference to me (2.65lbs vs 3.9lbs for P34). I LOVE the lightness of the GS30, but the power of the Gigabytes that I can access on the go, if needed, is so tempting. I will also need to purchase a new graphics card, since I only have a 760 GTX that I will definitely still need on my desktop at home.

 

Gigabyte P35X sorry. It's a light 15 incher but I guess too heavy for you.

I don't think Iris pro will be able to run Unity at 1080p. I can barely do that using 2xGT 650ms.

 

If you are no longer getting playable performance on games you want, you might want to upgrade. Otherwise if you are happy, keep at it for a while and save money

 

Yeah 15in won't even fit in my bag, I'm aiming to stay 14" and below.
Unity, as in the game engine, correct? I don't know much about it, but are a lot of games using Unity or a similarly demanding engine?

Leaning more and more towards the Gigabytes, but can't over the form factor of GS30. I'm terrible at making decisions.

 

no. AC:Unity.

If you got a desktop card then go for GS30 I guess.

 

Just bit the bullet and bought one of these. I'm a returning full time student with a job that allows me time to get some school work done on breaks. Hoping this solution fits the bill and lasts a while with the upgradeable desktop gpu solution. Is there an owners thread for this? Thanks

 

Which retailers, and how much? Please keep us updated!

 

Bought from xoticpc.com as newegg was out of stock - $1899.00 all day. Free shipping no tax. It was painful but i do think it's a really nice solution. Expecting to see it sometime next week as I'm sure they aren't as fast as newegg. Will post a review after I spend some time with it. It was this or the alienware 13 and after reading about qc issues and issues with graphics amp working with laptop - decided this was a better route - that and the better specs of the pc.

This happens to be my first msi computer - hoping the quality matches the price. Always have gone with asus rog laptops in the past.

 

I'm guessing you game only in the comforts of your home? I'd be interested in how much you have to sacrifice to actually game on the Iris Pro, if its even possible (without turning it down to like 768p).

 

From what I've read (not much in the form of reviews yet) the iris pro graphics will run league or dota 2 at normal settings fairly well.
But yes - of the 4-5 laptops I've owned - i realized i never once gamed on the go. I've only used it for work or school related purposes outside of my house. So - being that this has no dedicated internal gpu - i kind of figured that was a good thing for keeping heat down and more importantly battery life.

 

Congrats on your new computer! If its a stock configuration without any upgrades we do typically ship them out within 1-2 business days of payment clearing.
I did run all 4 of the benchmarks in the current 3DMark tests and they all were playable except for Firestrike. The least demanding one Ice Storm it would average 450-500FPS so it should have no problem playing most games, but for the more demanding ones you will have to set the game settings down.

 

Does anyone know how big the power supply is? And maybe how much it weighs also.

I've looked around and can't even get a glimpse or it in any video.

Would be nice if it has a compact power brick to add to the portability.

 

Welllll. After it taking over 24 hours to process a purchase and then finding out my billing address must match shipping address - ive decided to purchase elsewhere. I dont know how a company like newegg can handle thousands more in volume in sales and it takes over 24 hrs just to process an online debit card purchase. I found a vendor in california offering same deal so purchased with them instead. Will have the computer on monday. Now the question is - do i put a gtx960 or a 970 in this dock? Thoughts?

 

The brick is supposed to be 65W and is quite small iirc.

I think XoticPC manually processes every order so it usually takes a day before someone can review it and either charge your card or contact you if there is an issue.

I would go with a GTX970 unless you are trying to use a 4k external display. It has the best bang for the buck on the current round of desktop GPU's. You might even consider the R9 290X as it is supposed to have had a price cut recently. The nice thing is you have the choice of whatever you want to use!