MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

Wow, I didn't know the 870M ran that much hotter. I wonder why MSI didn't use the Maxwell variant of the 860M, though. Is it incompatible with the motherboard or did it just not fit into the slim casing?


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Probably the first reason. With two graphic cards with the same architecture, they only need one mobo for all versions.

 

Yes with both being GK104 they both have the same pin out, the 860M version just leaves two spaces spare on the mobo for vram.

 

Have you played with the SteelSeries software at all to see if this is software or hardware related? I know there are about an infinite number of lighting options, and four distinct layers you can cycle through with the FN + 1-4 keys as well. I've noticed the GS60 behaves similar to the GT60 where as on initial boot the lights either are off or are a different color, and then once Windows boots and the SteelSeries software loads it changes to your custom settings.

I haven't noticed much difference with component temps between sitting flat on a desk, sitting on my lap, or even sitting on a ZM-NC2000 cooler other than the external bottom panel is cooler... I can only assume this is because the air intakes are on the top side with four exhausts on rear back and sides and for the most part the bottom panel is solid other than two small sections of slots. Actual heatpipes are on the top of motherboard so they aren't getting any airflow from the bottom.

GPU/CPU temps are quite cool though so haven't really investigated further. CPU typically maxes about 78-80C and the 860m is 70-75C in most games when pushed, 80C in Blood Dragon.

 

I know the gs60 pro runs significantly hotter but considering that I will be using it on either a desk, lapdesk, or on a shelf connected to a TV when gaming should I really worry too much about the Temps? Besides cleaning out the fans every few months and maybe repasting, what else can I do to improve the laptops lifespan? How hot does it get when just surfing the Internet? Downloading games or watching a movie?

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Thanks for you anaswer. I've done all the obvious things: Restarted computer, gone through layers, played with software, noticed that keyboard is all red (except the LEDs that are not working) when computer just starts etc. Some of the LEDs just seem to have died

 

Hi, gentechpc - you said this screen is an IPS equivalent screen - just wanted to double check this before I order. I'm very used to the IPS screen on my AW14. I tried a GS70 at my local MicroCenter and the TN panel was very grainy and washed out and unpleasant to look at. How would you compare the GS60 to the GS70 as far as the screen quality?

Thanks!

 

I can answer this one. My wife used to have the AW14 with the IPS screen and she just received her GS60 Ghost yesterday. No question the Ghost kills the AW14 as far as screen quality goes. No comparison. Much brighter and vibrant. Screens are kind of a subjective kind of thing so your mileage and tastes may vary...but in our opinion, the quality of the Ghost screen is one of the definite positives. To give you an idea, my wife went from her MacBook Retina 15 screen to the Ghost and doesn't regret the switch one bit. That should tell you something. Hope that helps.

 

If one of the owners of this beauty could run a realistic battery life tests whenever he finds some time, that'd be super! Besides performances, that's what I need the most!

 

Anyone's horizontal scroll work?

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My wife is getting around 2 hours (ballpark) with regular usage....as in real world, browsing, full screen brightness, etc. She does tend to be tethered to power most of the time...but that's what she was getting on battery earlier today.

 

Is that with the dGPU "turned off"?

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Nope. That's with the Nvidia 860M active.

 

I'd like to see how the battery performs using only the iGPU.

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If it were my laptop, I'd be glad to experiment...but since it's my wife's, I'm merely a spectator

 

Thanks for this. I have decided to order one and see how it goes.


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So since both the 860M and 870M are based on the Kepler architecture, what's the difference between their power consumptions?

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Congrats on your purchase. We bought my wife's from Gentech and she loves the thing so far. She is ultra picky when it comes to screens. We have her Retina Macbook for sale in the other part of the forum. She loved the Mac because of the screen and honestly I'm shocked she's been as happy with the Ghost as she has. Hope yours works out great also!

 

Web browsing with letting Optimus manage gpu and screen brightness around 25% gets you 4.5 hours. I would guess the other guys wife with 100% screen brightness is about right at 2 hours

 

How do you manage optimus?

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Those ranges for battery life seem about right... 2 hours on the low end for full brightness and throwing power savings to the wind with 4-5 hours on the high end. I haven't needed to run a full cycle yet in one session but educated guess based on reported percentage with my typical light usage scenario of 70% screen brightness, backlit keys on and using the Intel GPU with wifi on while browsing, couple Office programs open, Outlook, Steam in background etc, seems to be around 4 hours. It's by no means a huge battery, but man is she light

Now, when gaming, I haven't even bothered to check, but Linus reported 48 minutes, and that sounds about right. Never had a laptop that will last much more than that when actually gaming with dedicated GPU regardless of battery size.

 

My first instinct after seeing this was to not order from xoticpc and yet I did anyways... Big mistake. So... Painfully... Slow... Customer care after you place your order, HA!

It seems I may never have my Ghost in my hands and will forever live vicariously through those that post about their personal experiences with their Ghosts...

 

It's the default auto setting that's part of the Nvidia control panel. When it detects a gpu intensive app it turns on the gpu, if not it puts gpu to sleep and let's intel integrated handle the rest

Effectively it's the same as disabling the gpu except there's always a little power draw just from being connected to the mobo.

 

Does anyone remember how long newegg had an exclusive for gs60 when it came out? I'm trying to gauge how long before other resellers like gentech are able to ship.

Update: After some digging through this forum, looks like it was exactly 2 weeks.

 

You are not alone... I also ordered from Xotic and been waiting and reading this forum everyday. They finally received my MSI GS60 on Tuesday the 15th and changed my status to Phase 2. No updates on status today even though the only modification I requested was for repasting. Hope it somehow gets repasted and ships out tomorrow.

 

I am looking for a new laptop.. either the gs60 or the gt60. How does everyone like the gs so far?

 

Both are great laptops, I've got one of each

They are totally different though and not in the same class at all. Depends on what you are looking for in performance/size/price.

 

GS60 Pro - Fans are quieter than the Sager with a 780m I had last year, similar to the razer 14. Heat wise, it has no blistering hot spot like the razer. Screen is great, definitely IPS type technology, very vibrant colors and great viewing angles.

Temps -- Tested an hour in Metro 2033, ran 3dmark06 and 3dmark firestrike, icestorm, etc, the highest temps were 79 CPu and 86 GPU. Thats with Metro and then benchmarks back to back.

Scores - 3dmark06 - 25k. Metro 2033 Ran over 30FPS DX11, max settings. Need to update drivers for 3dmark13 scores
Bioshock infinite benchmarking utility, Ultra DDoF 1920x1080 - 91fps average

All in all this thing seems great, and 86C seems totally fine for a max during gaming and benchmarking.

Ordered from newegg yesterday and got it today.

 

Is that with the 870M?
Great temps if it is and congrats on your new laptop

 

So looking into dual raid configuration (I know its risky, but SSDs provide more reliability then normal hard drives).
My question is after a quick look online for M.2 SSDs I noticed all seem to have different sizes. Is there no standard size? and if so will i be able to upgrade memory from the M.2 into 256/512gb dual raid (found some Samsung ones online and was really looking to get it, if it fits)?

 

What I usually do on desktop systems is regularly copy the SSD partition(s) to a partition(s) on the HDD. If you set it up right along with whatever partition info is needed to boot off the HDD, then this is effectively a backup of the SSD. Should the SSD ever fail, you can remove it and boot off the HDD while you wait for the warranty exchange on the SSD.

Since the GS60 comes with a HDD in addition to the SSD, you should be able to do the same thing. I should note that this was pretty simple to set up with Win 7. I had to struggle a long time to get it working with Win 8. It may be simpler just to backup your RAID SSD to an external drive, and keep the original 128 GB SSD around as a temporary replacement should the RAID ever fail.

The M.2 spec allows all sorts of different lengths. I don't have a GS60 yet so I can't measure, but the size in Ken's video looked like the longest allowable length. You might be able to put in a shorter one, but I doubt you'd be able to screw it down.

M.2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The other gotcha to watch out for is whether the slots can take SATA cards, PCIe cards, or both. Theoretically the spec is designed to work with both types of SSDs. But it's a new spec, and many early implementations only work in SATA mode (the connector has 3 blades with 2 gaps), or only work in PCIe mode (2 blades with 1 gap).

The SSD listed in the specs is a SATA mode type, but hopefully MSI implemented the full M.2 spec so you can load two PCIe SSDs into this bad boy and hit 2 GB/s in RAID-0.

 

Does anybody here own the gs60 (870m)?
If so i would love to hear their opinion on the notebook, moslty regarding if the noise and heat is worth it in their eyes, as well as how annoying it might be.

Also, it looks to me like the gs60 is a little noisy due to the agressive cooling profile. Has anybody tried to change it, so that it cools less but makes less noise?


Regards

 

Thank you very much, you are making my decision between this and the p35w simpler.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

@charger71 while not gaming how loud are the fans? And does it get too hot that you can't put it on your lap directly?

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Thanks for the info, heat is a big concern for me as well so the 860m seems more appealing to me.

One more question for you, is it possible to pull off the tacky red dragon logo from the back of the screen?

 

I'd like to know this as well.

Is the GS60 870m lap friendly? (web surfing and movies)
If it is I'll order it. If it's not I'll probably go with the GT60.

 

I'm sorry to hear this and would like to offer my help.

I see Derek was helping you with your order. You can see his reply on the next page. If you would please follow up with him so we can get your order going. Using a card with someone else's name on it does often delay order processing.

Can you provide me with your order number please so I can look into this. We typically do estimate build times longer than 2 business days for any computers that have customizations to it including thermal compound. I'll be happy to look into your order and see if there is anything that needs to be done but since its Phase 2, it looks like everything should be covered.

 

Not unless you want a big gaping hole on the back of the screen, it's not a sticker it's backlit so it's plugged into the system.
I think it looks pretty cool myself

 

Noise and heat measurements at no load, 100% cpu load + 0 GPU load, and 100% cpu + 100% gpu load would be nice to know. I think there are a lot of applications that are cpu bound, but aren't particularly taxing on the GPU.

 

Hey there,

I was actually the advisor on your order. Just managed to locate it on our end. Looks like the delays we've had so far are purely payment processing. The machine is available just having trouble getting your payment to go through. Initial delays with bank not allowing the charge to go through and now that we've switched cards we're trying to get the card holder in contact with us to verify the charge is OK with them. I just left voicemails on your number as well as the billing phone number in attempt to reach out to you or the cardholder. If you could please have them or yourself give us a call when you have a chance, that's really all we're waiting on.

 

I think it's great you guys are on it for helping these guys, but can we keep technical support for specific order problems out of the public forum? I don't think everyone needs to know this guy has credit card problems..

 

Engadget posted a review

MSI GS60 Ghost review: a gaming rig in an Ultrabook's clothing

 

It's definitely not our intention to do so, but if no response is posted by us that leaves other viewers to think we're doing nothing to alleviate the concern. Me being the sales advisor, I was never made aware of any problems the customer was having until I read his post this morning. I definitely agree it's better to address this directly with us instead of public forums, but if that's the route that I find out about the problem, I do need to address the problem publicly as well and do my best to do so without any identifiable information on that user. This wasn't a problem with any credit or anything of that sort, just daily limit transactions that everybody has on their cards and the bank unwilling to help get it resolved. Then when switching cards to a different card holder, need to be sure that person authorizes the charge prior to attempting to do so and all we were looking to achieve. I'm glad to report that we had just been able to complete the transaction for the customer with new information provided and they've been successfully updated in the order progress.

 

I just got an e-mail from XoticPC that they can't put a second mSATA drive in to the second slot. That's a bummer. I was second guessing getting the upgrade, but I also figure I didn't want to deal with upgrading it later. Does that mean nobody is offering an upgrade now?

 

What they are is the NGFF M.2 Standard and those drives aren't the easiest to come by. We did get a line on some to come in though. So we aren't going to be getting the one you have selected currently as they're normal mSATA drives. We are adding new options today and removing the old though. PM or email me your order information and I'll get you the pricing on them.

 

Few updates - Yes, I have the pro with the GTX870M

Temp wise, after the benchmarks I put it on my lap and it was warm yes, but not burning. I don't have a way to measure though so I'm not sure exactly what the temp, but I think I could game with it on my lap.

At low use, web browsing, Netflix etc, the fans were quiet. Not silent, but not noticeable unless I specifically focused on it. They also did not throttle up and down or dow anything weird. I'm ok with conistant fan sounds, its the constant throttling that I always notice. The GS60 pro was good about that.

I'll be testing more later today. Any benchmarks or numbers or questions anyone has on the pro let me know.

 

How about fan noise while gaming and/or running demanding programs?

 

Apologies, I think it's great but if we do that for everyone the forum will get completely muddied up with that. It should be done behind the scenes and maybe that person can then post an update that it's been taken care of.

You can't make everyone happy and you'll be here defending your honor quite a bit.

 

The fans do get louder, and you can tell when it uses the GPU vs CPU or both fans. The fan speeds do increase in proportion to the load.

I don't really know how to quantify the sound. Yes, you definitely hear it when gaming, but its nothing louder than any other gaming laptop under load. I've had a Samsung NP700G7C, Alienware 14, Razer blade 14, and W230ST. The razer 14 was the quietest at full load, but just as loud at light loads at the MSI. The others were similar, with the Sagers being louder at idle and load than the GS60.

I'll try to make a quick video tonight from in front to see if I can capture the volume relative to normal gaming. The fan noise did not detract from the audio when watching a movie on Netflix or any gunfire when playing Borderlands or Metro.