MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

Yes same here, there is a <0.5mm gap at the seam between front/back bezels, but it doesn't seem to be a manufacturing error. It's not loose or broken, so I'm not worried about it. DIYers could fill the gap with epoxy I guess... But it's tiny already.

 

Was updating the EC/BIOS this afternoon and decided to tinker with Svet's tuner... here are the default fan settings for the GS60 2PC 860m:



Will tinker a bit and see how things behave.

Would be curious to see if the 870m has a different profile.

 

If you can point me to a walk through on using that tool I could post up results for the 870m.

 

More notes on GS60:

- Pressing "F3" at boot doesn't actually take me to the Windows Boot Manager menu. Some text briefly flashes but the M.2 SSD Win8 partition ends up booting immediately anyway. I found that to boot off the mSATA slot instead, I have to set boot to Legacy (instead of UEFI) in the BIOS.
- Many Steelseries key LEDs are shot on my unit. F7/F8/F9/F11/LShift/Caps/Tab/Tilde/Insert/Delete/Numlock/Div/Mul are all completely dark regardless of color profile. LCtrl/Rshift/Up are missing some LEDs too. And: my LCtrl key won't press properly depending on where I touch it.

 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=148273.0

Here's the page for his tool, but it isn't freely available... well worth the donation to Svet for all his hard work, but unfortunately it doesn't support our 860/870m vBios' yet so it's not functional for GPU tweaking on the GS60's. Hopefully he will update and add support.

Having said that, it does work great for modifying the FAN profiles in the EC for both the CPU & GPU. I just flashed a modified file dropping the fan speeds down to 43% instead of the factory 48% up to 55C, and it is noticeably quieter and still sitting at 43C with fans steady at 2560 RPM (compared to 2900 RPM). I bet it could go even lower with ok temps but the fan as mentioned elsewhere doesn't support anything lower; I tried it out of curiosity and it varied constantly between 0 and 3300 ha

 

That sounds like the keyboard isn't 100% correctly plugged in/making contact with the slot. That would possibly explain why F3 doesn't work.

Forgive me if I missed a post somewhere, but what, exactly, are you trying to boot to that's not the O/S drive? [besides something that apparently doesn't support UEFI] Did you disable secure boot?

 

Hi Guys, this will be a long post but I would like to share some thoughts as I think some people are overreacting a little over the GS60 Pro temperature.



1 - From what I could see in the Nvidia Inspector, MSI is putting the temperature limit at 93C, that`s why we didn't see temperatures higher than that. I understood that at 93C they are decreasing the power delivery to the GPU to prevent it to go higher. Even thought the temperature diference in the Gentech review with IC Diamond was only 2C, the power delivery to the GPU should be a litthle higher also, not a big difference to change the benchmark score.
But what you could also see in the review, is that the heat been exhausted is reasonable hotter despite the GPU been 2C cooler.
So I would say the repaste did a good job, as now the heat is been transfered better to the heatsink, resulting in bigger exhaust temperature.

2 - People are concerned about the temperature in the surrounding area, the near components around the GPU is the voltage regulator for the graphics card and the chipset.
I usually don't see notebooks having a contact in the vrms, but in this notebook the voltage regulator is been cooled by the heatsink ( only in the GPU ). So I would say temperatures are better than in other notebooks even with the gpu at 93C.
The chipset has no heatsink attached, it is only exposed to air. Even under these conditions, the chipset is under the normal operation temperature and after Gentech repaste it with IC Diamond, the chipset was a little cooler.
So I'm not as conserned as I really think this is under normal conditions, the GPU I agree is a little too hot, but I think 89C is not impossible with some work.

3 - This notebook is very slim and it has 4 heatpipes in total, these heatpipes are really really close to the chassis in its all extension. So the temperature in the chassis don't represent the temperature of the air inside and the temperature of the pcb, as the pcb is more distant from the chassis comparing to the heatpipe.
The chassis and the heatpipe will radiate heat inside the notebook, but I think the inside is not as bad as we think, otherwise I think we would see higher temperature on the chipset.

4 - I would not recomend to anyone to put heatsink mods in the "heatsink", I don't think you have space to it, but if possible you would change the air temperature profile that engineers have design the inside, and this could result in higher temperature of some components.



So, I have already pre-order a Ghost Pro withour the 3K display. I'm really anxious to receive it and I will do everything that I know so far to help its temperature on the GPU, and let's see how far I can go.

Thanks guys

 

This is pretty much what I would expect to see from a card this hot. I've said it here and there a few times between here and the Razer forums. The big ISSUE is. . . at what temperature does it START throttling? Does it start throttling at 80c and scale the throttle up as heat rises to the maximum set 93c? How far back is it being throttled to limit the heat? 5%? 10? 20?

Those are some of the questions I suspect more than a few people are really curious about. IF you're losing 20%, you're starting to fall into 860m territory. Couple that with the 3k screen on something like the 14" blade [or the MSI version when it becomes available] and it really brings to the forefront the question "is it REALLY worth it for 870m?

And I'm not judging, I'm just speculating here. Those of you with Ghost Pros, any experiences, thoughts, notes, etc?

 

Hi guys!

I asked some pages ago about the noise of 860m model. I'll asked it again, since there's a lot of new users with it in hands. So, I'm almost buying one, but what worries me is the fact that I will always use it at public spaces, such as classrooms, libraries, and rooms with others sleeping. Will the fan noise disturb others while I'm using the web, adobe, or word?

Thank you in advance,

 

I don't think we are losing performance with the default settings.
The 3DMARK 11 GPU performance score at notebookchek.net ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech ) is at 7270, and Gentech 3DMARK 11 got 7293 with a stock ghost pro and maximum temperature of 93C.
I think the decrease in the power delivery is not much to affect the performance in default settings. MSI is a experienced company, and I think you could only see decreasing in performance in a warm room.

I will always agree that is a little hotter than I would like to be and pleasant with, but I really thinks is possible to make it slightly better.

I don't have my Ghost Pro yet, but I can't wait to receive it and make more conclusions and tests with it.

 

Thanks to this great thread, I think I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on the pro-3k. Does anyone have the faintest idea when that model will be available? I'd pre order, but I have a few international trips coming up in mid-May and I'd like to know if I'll have it in time.

Any info would be most appreciated. Heck, I'll even take speculation at this point. =) Thanks!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

No news so far, little info I got from my local retailers claim that it will be weeks away from it's released, most probably ETA mid to end of May.

By the way, why do you even want the 3K Display? That 3K display won't be nice on a small screen of 15.6inch, what's more Windows 8.1 got very bad scaling, just my opinion

 

Is it possible this is by design. I have the same keys with less light underneath. What is the likelihood of this. Am wondering if this is by design?

 

So would a good laptop cooler help alleviate some of that heating issue for the Pro? If I were to get one, I would not be placing it on my lap anyways. It would be connected to my 27" in monitor, with its 15" screen as a secondary screen.

Also, can the 1080p version scale up to higher resolutions on higher res monitors? (sorry for the noob question).

 

From what I can understand from the design, not really. It feeds from the top not the bottom.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

Maybe I'm not the only one with odd unlit keys (see a few posts above). I also definitely see something happen when I press F3 at boot, so the key is definitely not broken. Hopefully this is just a Steelseries firmware issue that can be fixed.

I put another bootable OS on the HDD, and was trying to get to Windows Boot Manager (F3) to choose from available boot options. Regardless, official MSI instructions claim F3 takes you to a recovery screen -- it doesn't even do that.

 

Thanks for the info! I was looking at THIS thread and it appeared hopeful as a solution to the slight loudness. Since 43% fan speed is the minimum, would it be ridiculous to just turn off the fans? According to the thread I mentioned earlier it should be possible. I wonder how high the temperature would run....

Classrooms should be fine, I would find it a little loud to use while others sleep/in the library though - I am quite noise sensitive though. Just my 2 cents.

 

just wondering anybody here end up returning their laptop because they couldn't stand the heat or noise?

 

Thanks for that information... darn.

Some folks in this thread said that they've seen the 3K display and are very impressed with it. I like the option to have the higher resolution for stuff like photo work, and from my experience Windows 8 actually scales pretty well- it's when you're trying to do it across multiple monitors that it gets interesting. Again, at least in my experience.

Guess I'll keep my eyes peeled. Was hoping to have it for my travels in May, but as the Stones said, you can't always get what you want.

 

It is design limitation issue, all of their SS keyboards are like this, so it's not just GS60.

 

i have the 860m version and using dragon gaming console it shows max wattage during gaming 144W and my battery does drop down to like 95% after 2 hours or so
max fan speed was 5200rpm, max gpu 78c

 

Hey guys, about to "pull the trigger" on the gs60 ghost with gtx 860m. I know its probably been posted and buried somewhere in this forum but can someone please post how hot the temperatures get for the CPU and GPU under max load for the gtx 860m. All the video reviews say the gpu maxes in mid to high 70s and cpu mid to high 80s... It just sounds too good to be true in this small of a chassis. Can anyone confirm the CPU and GPU temperatures so i can put my mind to rest and buy this fuccking awesome beast of a laptop Also, how long of a lifetime should i expect from this baby if i play games pretty often. Going to college and I need it for like 4-5 years! Thanks!

 

Another quick question... anybody know a cheaper version of this. Like id dont really want the ssd or mandatory 16 gb ram it seems to only raise the price, any way to get rid of those features lol

 

you can get the p35w. Its cheaper!

 

It's true, and have been mentioned in several reviews.
The product should last you for about 3 years in terms of technological changes.

 

Actually the air for the cooling system comes from the top and bottom, so it should help.

I live in Germany right now, and here there is a model without the SSD, 12Gb of RAM and an i5-4200H for a resonable reduction in price.
The model is GS60-2PCi581 , but I don't know where else it's available

 

Can confirm that I have exactly the same keys with less light underneath them too.

 

Hi, does anyone know if the gs60 will be compatible with the new 65W Dart charger?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/215201435/dart-the-worlds-smallest-laptop-adapter

 

Thank you guys for keeping up with all the responses in this thread, love the information. Pretty sure I will be getting the GS60 Pro in coming months.

The wifi issues sound like the largest concern, will we see Killer Wireless as an option in the near future? Is it possible for the wifi module to be upgraded (space or port wise)?

 

Unfortunately i dont think it will work well. The gs60 included power supply is 120w. They sell a more powerful "MacBook Pro with retina" dart that is supposed to replace an 85w power supply but that will still fall short.

The adapter will probably fit (they make it for different manufactures) however the difference in needed vs supplied wattage will translate to a dramatically slower charging time or faster discharging time when gaming while plugged in.

Not quite worth the $150 for the early bird kickstarter



FINsix (company producing dart) is a really interesting company and i really hope their products take off...so that they can shrink the size of real gamer laptop power supplies in the near future

 

My included MSI power supply is 150W, not 120W.

 

The wifi card looks to be removable, however it is a different connection than other cards. Not sure if it's proprietary to this motherboard, or no other manufacturers have gotten around to changing/duplicating yet.

 

Hi I want to upgrade the MSATA in my GS60, my understanding is that it comes with 1 free slot, and I want to put it into RAID 0.

- Which MSATA do I need to buy? will any Msata fit?
- Are mSatas slower or faster than the standard 2.5 SSD?

Also do they need to be the same brand? Ive watched the tear down, but how complicated is it really to do this? I know its located on the other side of the mother board which needs to be removed....

Thank you

 

I stand corrected. apparently there's a conflict between the specs on the us msi website and the global website. 150w makes more sense.

MSI USA - Dragoon Army Site | GS60 Ghost Gaming Notebook


MSI Global GS60 2PC Ghost

 

Either way, the 65W Dart charger on kickstarter isn't even close

 

Ah... That is too bad, doing a quick bit of research it would look like it is an m.2 wireless module (Intel® Dual Band AC 7260) since this is such a new standard there are not a lot of options yet. So I assume this is dependent on when other cards are available. And then from what I can tell the m.2 standard actually doesn't specify a length so even if they are m.2 that doesn't mean they'll fit...

 

Msata SSDs are generally slower than the full sized ones, but the GS60 uses M.2 which is different from both. M.2 can use both PCIE (faster than full sized) or SATA3 (same as full sized), but iirc the GS60 uses the SATA3 connector which means it won't be any faster than a regular SSD and will probably be a bit slower due to PCB size constraints.

I could very well be wrong about which connector the GS60 uses for M.2 though (SATA3 vs PCIE), so don't take that as fact.

 

I don't believe there are any MSATA slots on the GS60. There is a single 2.5in bay that your HDD is in and there is two M.2 SATA slots, one of them being the 128GB slot your OS is on. There aren't a lot of options at the moment for M.2 SATA. They need to be the same size.. brand I don't know, but I can't imagine any reason you would want two different brands. I'm not that educated, but I think M.2 is just a longer slotted drive so it fits differently. I don't think any specs were given up in the process.

 

So i guess essentially the best thing to do is to open the unit up, look at the part and try to source the exact same thing as teh M2 standard is not really set in stone when it comes to size and stuff I guess. So basically it is an M.2 standard with SATA3 connector, so speeds should be equal to a normal SSD.

 

That sounds correct. I believe the gs60's m.2 uses sata3 as stated above (I think it was in one of the videos). If you find the exact same drive as the gs60 came with, that would work great. Other current options would be m550 and intel 530.
The good news is that the gs60 seems to support the longest length of m.2, which means all m.2 drives should work (there are shorter ones).

 

Cool thanks for that. My plan is to take out the 1tb drive to save some weight also haha

 

You can also get the exact part in from the BIOS.

 

Ran 3DMark 13 and 11 last night, scored 4316 and 7038 respectively, not bad at all IMHO, GPU temps topped at 86 degrees, but I think they'll go higher on extended gaming sessions. Thing is the card didn't throttle at all even after several runs using the default drivers (rel. 332) and the latest beta rel. (337.50), I saw no difference between the two drivers in either scores or temps.

I reply to your message because, I believe there are a lot of people like you who believe performance will be affected by throttling but I can report that is not the case with the 870M based GS60. I'm at work right now and cannot upload any screen shots at the moment, but I will once I get back home if you want me to.

Thing is, it appears the cooling system is reaching thermal stability even before the GPU needs to throttle, which IMHO is just amazing given the thin form factor, I'm not exaggerating when I say I was startled when I first lifted the laptop by how light and thin it is, this is right in ultra book alley, and yet the performance is mind blowing.

The laptop feels so light you might be fooled into thinking it's a cheap macbook knockoff, but the MgLi alloy and brushed aluminum finish makes you realize quickly this is a premium laptop, I believe MSI engineers did their homework when designing the cooling solution, the grill on top of the keyboard is always sucking cool air and it actually feels pleasant to the touch, the keyboard itself never got uncomfortably warm but the bottom of the laptop got very warm, as others mentioned before, you don't want it resting on your lap on extended gaming sessions.

Noise emissions are average for a gaming laptop IMO, the right side fan ramps up after a few seconds of high GPU activity, but the sound was more of a woosh than the high pitched noise my 290X made on umber mode before I installed WC on it.

I don't know yet if I'll repaste the heatsinks, the CPU never broke the 83 degree mark, temps are actually lower than my previous 17" Sammy and Asus laptops, an achievement on itself considering this laptop is two or three times thinner than those behemoths, and yet delivers much much higher peromance than either one of them (2x to 3x).

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised, and thoroughly satisfied with my purchase, I left the laptop downloading Titanfall, Crysis 3, and Metro LL before leaving for work, TESO, Skyrim and BF4 finished downloading yesterday, I hope I can run more games tonight and will update my results when I do

 

So along those lines, can you access the RAM and HDD Bay right by removing the bottom of the laptop?

I believe I saw postings that you had to remote the whole mother board? Is that true? Is there a service manual? I'm used to upgrading laptops but I'd rather not have to take the whole thing apart right after buying it to do some simple upgrades.

 

Hi everyone

I remember seeing in a previous post that the gs60 (both models) draw a bit of their power from the battery. My question is if anyone have tried to get a power brick with a higher wattage, to stop the system from drawing battery power.

Regards

 

I got my GS60 pro and I have had it for 2 days now, just my 2 cents. The thing is really nice. Good build quality except the screen bezel ( just like GS70 ) it is a crappy piece of thin plastic. Noise... I can not complain even under full gaming. It's a lot quieter than my Alienware m17x r4. So the noise haters out there should not fret, by the way it's a gaming laptop. On the temp side again under load it never got hot on top of the laptop., bottom not bad at all. Again a lot cooler than my Alienware. It never throttles under gaming or heavy graphics workloads. I did have a re-paste though. The spinner drive was also taken out for a 1TB SSD Samsung. Witch could help on temps? Just don't know on that one.

 

Why? It was designed to do this. I would take smaller and lighter over a big heavy power brick!

 

My contact at CDW (Canada) says his rep told him the GS60 3K will be available May 12.

 

Hi,

i have two questions:
1- Actually i live in Montreal Canada, someone knows why the price of gs60 ghost 870M 1080p is 150$ more expensive than in USA ?
Newegg.ca - MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro-052 Notebook Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 12GB Memory 1TB HDD 128GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit
MSI GS60 GhostPro-052 nVidia GTX870M - GenTech PC

2- If i customize in gentechpc by replacing the default M.2 SATA by 2x Crucial 120GB, will i got the same windows 8.1 pre-installed from factory ?

 

How does every owner of the GS60 feel about the touchpad?

I have half the mind right now to smash the damn laptop to pieces with the sensitivity of the touchpad.

My issue here is it's not precise at all. Moving my fingers on it precisely only seems to result in the pointer moving in some sort of grid lines in 8 directions (vertically, horizontally and diagonally). I can't move the pointer in tiny circles.

Seriously, for a USD 2,000 laptop (Ghost Pro here), they can't even get a touchpad to work properly.