MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

That is really disappointing, if true. The great keyboard was one of the selling points for me. Between that and the problematic screen, I will probably pass on the GS60 and get a Clevo P650RG instead.

 

I'm with you on the keyboard but from what people here have said so far is the keyboard is fine. They removed an M.2 slot because PCI-E is so fast that RAID-0 is pretty pointless. I still wish they had left a M.2 sata slot like other manufacturers have been doing.

As for the bottom plate, I would be really surprised if it was different. There's a chance whoever you got that information from is mistaken because others in the past have said the older models were plastic too. I really questioned whether or not it was plastic when I got one because it was a totally different surface finish than the top. But there were qualities about it that made me think it was metal. It's very strong at the passive vents and speakers and when you open it up, there's a metallic finish on the other side. If it were plastic, it would be solid black. Also, the back edge by the fan vents is definitely plastic and looks a lot different. I'd agree it resembles Mg-Li as well because I hardly have a scratch on it. If it were aluminum, there would be hundreds of scratches by now and plastic would have a few scratches but they would likely look worse than the one I have. I guess there is a small chance this is just a very hard plastic still, but if it is I don't really care because it's pretty solid imo. Looking forward to hearing your opinion on it when you get it.

 

For what it's worth, even the previous keyboard wasn't all that great (maybe better than average notebook but far from ideal).

It's basically the main reason I still use my oldie Thinkpad W520 as daily use workhorse machine and my MSI GS60 is just for when I need graphics power.

Tactile feel of GS60 keyboard is ok, nothing stellar but also not problematic.

It's the keys layout that's annoying and counterproductive: small Enter, no physical separation for arrow keys, no separate keys for Home and End, small Esc, small Del, superfluous numpad that just stands in the way.

If I were buying today, I would go with some Clevo P650 model too.

The main reason is they added physical multiplexer, so you can turn off Optimus in BIOS (DisplayPort/HDMI/internal screen are all driven by Nvidia iGPU not Intel iGPU; Optimus + screens driven by iGPU have caused my tons of pain with GS60).

One big drawback older models of Clevo P650 had vs GS60 was worse CPU cooling, but that should be less bad with Skylake (vs Haswell/Broadwell).

Just to be aware, Clevo keyboard is kinda the same as GS60 one: decent tactile feel but silly layout.

Also no models of that Clevo line have Thunderbolt. Which may be a dealbreaker if you e.g. plan to use external GPU sometime in the future.

 

Thanks for your comments, they are very informative. I haven't seen any reviews of the P650RG yet, but all else the same, I am assuming the noise at full load would have dropped a few decibels based on the lower power-draw of Skylake. The relative quiet of the new GS60 at full load has me optimistic for similar gains in other laptops. The lack of USB 3.1 doesn't bother me with the P650RG, since the 980m and dGPU mode should be good enough to power an Oculus setup.

Honestly, regarding the keyboard, "good enough" is fine by me. I have been spoiled by Thinkpad and Macbook Pro keyboards at work, so I know that little else will live up to that high standard.

 

I have been going through exactly the same search a year ago

For Oculus, I would suggest waiting for Pascal GPUs. I went with GTX 970M as it was kinda enough for DK2, but I assume you want to be ready for CV1.

GTX 980M will be just so-so for CV1. Only GTX 980 is officially blessed by Oculus, and that one only comes in huge notebooks.

Pascal equivalents of 970M and 980M (however they would be called) would be better options and anyways you'll need to wait for CV1 launch in 2016 ( DK2 just sold out).

I know the official CV1 requirements are GTX 970, but you have to keep in mind a lot of VR applications are badly optimized (I tried and some demos that were running slow on my GTX 970M were running badly even on Titan Black).

BTW if you want to run Oculus, you simply can't have any notebook that doesn't have dGPU powered ports (till those new RG/RE models of Clevos got MUX that mean anything with Optimus) so GS60 is definitely out.

I got badly burned by this - before you could use DK2 with even Optimus notebook with iGPU powered ports in extended mode. But since SDK 0.7 they completely dropped it, so my DK2 basically slowly becomes paper-weight with applications upgrading to new SDK.

 

Good to know, thanks! I am less worried about getting the best possible Oculus experience with a laptop than getting an acceptable one for some occasional use. Once the tech matures, and I have more money, I will probably build a desktop with some beefy graphics to get the best possible experience. For now, my desktop is dead and my laptop isn't cutting it, so I just want to get the best bang for my buck and cover my laptop needs for the next 4 years or so.

 

Anyone knows how to modify the EC for fan settings on the GS60 6QE?

 

Also, anyone got Bluetooth devices to work?

 

Gs60 Ghost pro 6qe skylake. restarted the laptop then went to a flashy white and black screen, so i pressed the reset button on the side and the problem still exists, need help pc is 5 days old

 

Is it reasonable to assume that the FHD version will get better battery life than the 4K version for productivity/internet use?

 

Review of the Skylake GS60 is up at Notebook Check: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Xotic-PC-MSI-GS60-6QE-002US-Notebook-Review.152667.0.html

Does not look like there has been much in the way of improvements since the last iteration. Still noisy and the battery life is awful (even with a FHD display). I am definitely going to pass. Too bad...

 

Well, I'm glad I got the fully evolved GS60 w/6gb video card, 4th Gen Intel Haswell Core i7-4720HQ, 2.6~3.6GHz, 22nm, 6MB, 47W, and Raid 0 SSD's (Win 10 CAN'T have SSD Raid 0, and mine is Win7 Pro It may superior to this newer configuration. My 'Spider senses tingling' paid off again. They do not offer my model now, so it must have been too much of a good deal for the customer. Well, for anyone except me: I can deal with that.

The newer one will 'catch up' when they get the manufacturing process evolved for a smaller foot print print circuit board, they offer more options cheaper like a mature cycle product, and 30 more years IF Intel ever invests in SSD Raid 0 software configurations for Win10 (when pigs fly!) It looks like the window of opportunity has come and gone and wasn't open very long.

 

I'm running raid 0 with Windows 10. Is it not supposed to work?

Edit: nm, I just realized that you were the same person claiming it didn't work a few months ago. It works fine for me and if you need proof their drivers support it, see Intel's response on this thread: https://communities.intel.com/thread/80321

 

Raid 0 W/SSD drives, Win7 Pro was only qualified when I bought mine Summer/15. It will work, but may eat up SSD drive space.

IF you have SSD's in Raid 0 config, check your storage space this week and then next week. If you have SSD's in Raid 0 config and it IS eating it up, down grade the Win 7 Pro or get rid of Raid 0 or get rid of SSD's.

I worked with Intel as a Mfg. engineer making SMT circuit boards at AVEX in the late 1990's and their qualification process is multi year long, but they COULD have started 10 years ago on Win 10, lol, but it's not stable now so... ymmv.

Report back with what you find. It took me months of configuring to find the best possible notebook, and it was very time consuming (Thanks GenTech!) Reliability is the main thing, but the 6gb 970 video card and Raid 0 SSD w/ SSD storage hd were icing on the cake. Good luck!

 

I've had the same 930GB(2x 512GB RAID0 SSDs) of space for 3 months now. It's always been identical to my 2.5" 1TB SSD. I think what you are talking about is non-existent anymore

 

And note the article said at the summary of pros/cons at end on right side: "No Raid 0!"

So if you didn't buy from GenTech, Many/Most of the other builders may not even have a clue. Win7 Pro is the Golden OS (until 2020 at least) and Intel documentation is the BOTTOM line.

 

That's what I've got too in SSD's (not standard, but what GenTech suggested.) Who built your machine?

 

As I said, I did not check Intel documentation on yours. But if Intel did not UPGRADE documentation, it does not mean it will not work: it just means they will not guarantee it to work forever. I don't know what model you got when or with who, but it works. If that is all you want and don't want to invest the time to see if it's approved in Intel documentation, that is fine.

But for me, at over $2K, this is a critical investment for me in trading futures. I think it is a perfect machine, and went out of my way to assure it will be. Of course yours could be better, but there would be random chance involved with trusting Microsoft and Intel to automatically do multiyear intensive hardware/software verification based on a little known 'glitch' of SSD Raid 0 drives. I would not trust Msft period.

The "No Raid 0" in the article, if that was the model you got, would be sufficient reason for concern (or at least keep an eye on it for an extended amount of time.)

 

Bought from newegg and upgraded it myself.

 

It sounds fine to me, and you got a good deal I'm sure. Let us know if anything changes. Thanks for the information on this leading edge technology hardware!

 

Hello everyone, long time lurker first time post here. I currently have the GS60 2QE ghost pro 970m with the 4th gen hashwell processor. I did a clean install of win10 since I didn't really like win8.1. Issue here is I can't seem to find the right drivers to install. I saw someone reply on this thread saying that the 5th gen broadwell drivers for win10 listed in MSI's website will work just fine. I tried looking for the win10 drivers on their website but could only find for win8.1. If someone can point to the right direction it would be very helpful. Thank you in advance.

 

That was probably me. I forget if I got them here or not but try these.

http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-5.html#down-driver&Win10 64

Ignore the VGA drivers - you can get those off their websites and the Intel one is Broadwell so it won't work. Everything else should work fine but I'm iffy on the Chipset drivers. I can't remember if those are Broadwell specific or not. Trying cant's hurt - it should let you know if it doesn't work. If not, try the 8.1 drivers but I know one of them works since I have no warning symbols in device manager. GL

Can't believe MSI still hasn't updated the site....

 

Thanks for the reply, it helps a lot. I will give those drivers a go and report back if any issues. Are firmware and bios update necessary?

 

BIOS & EC firmware update are highly recommended.
Because they usually contain fixes & enhancements, and the risks are much lower than before.

 

I've never updated a BIOS nor EC firmware before, I'm going to have to read up on that. What should be updated first? I'm assuming BIOS? Should I also clean OS install after updating BIOS and EC firmware?

 

Update BIOS first, then EC after.
The instructions are readily available on the download page.
But if you have any questions, feel free to ask us.

 

I'm trying to figure out which BIOS driver I should download. MSI manual says to get the specific version for my model or I can end up bricking my laptop. These are the two I'm looking at:

http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-4.html#down-bios

http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-5.html#down-bios

First link has version: E16H5IMS.10H
Second link has version: E16H5IMS.50B

I'm a bit hesitant to try it out, please reply back when possible. Thanks.

 

I was just checking this yesterday. When I got to MSI site, it asked me if I had Haswell or Broadwell model. I have Haswell one, which I selected and it took me to link ending with number 4.

So I presume it's "4" for 4th-gen Intel (Haswell) and "5" for 5th-gen Intel (Broadwell).

So for you, you need to know which CPU model you have:

Haswell CPUs used with MSI GS60 were: i7-4700HQ, i7-4710HQ, i7-4720HQ.

Broadwell CPU was: i7-5700HQ.

--------------

For BIOS and EC version numbers, MSI tells you need to pay attention to the first digit after the dot: E16H5IMS. 10H

You can find out BIOS version that's currently used by your notebook via "msinfo32" command line tool.

New BIOS version should match your existing one in the first digit after the dot, then next characters should increase for newer versions (seems MSI is using both digits and letters for BIOS versions).

 

Yes this should get you sorted

 

Find out what you currently have in the BIOS setup, under System Information.
You can flash based on the same version sequence, for example 16F3 5XX to 16F3 5XX, 1763 7XX to 1763 7XX.

 

Current Bios Versioni is E16H5IMS.106 on my gs60. Does this mean that both BIOS on MSI's website will work?

 

10H is the latest version for you.
You can't use 50B.

 

Thank you, I got the BIOS updated.

*Solved*
EC firmware is not updating for some reason.
My current version is: 16H5EMS1 Ver5.04
Version I downloaded from MSI website: 16H5EMS1.506 ( http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-4.html#down-firmware)

Extracted zip -> winflash.exe -> check shutdown -> start -> auto shutdown -> power button
No error message, but EC version is still at Ver5.04 when checked in BIOS. any suggestions?

Edit: took off power cord and plugged it back in to reset EC RAM and worked perfectly. Kevin you are awesome! Thank you so much for the help!

 

I'm having Killer network driver issues. I'm currently on win8.1 trying to connect to the internet to get the win10 free upgrade ad to show.

I downloaded the latest Killer LAN& Killer Wireless LAN that was listed on MSI's website:
( http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-4.html#down-driver&Win8.1 64)

Windows started to do a big update, I let it do it's job for 30mins or so. I came back and started up my GS60, displayed error 0x000001d4 with a sad face on boot. The screen said it's solving the issue, but it would restart and keep looping with the error message.

*Killer LAN & Killer Wireless LAN was the only driver I installed*

I did a clean install ever since the error, and currently I have no drivers installed/updated. I'm not sure how I can connect to the internet, laptop doesn't seem to recognize my ethernet cable when plugged in.

 

If that review is right I am going to pass.

Put simply though, I just cant believe it is. That seems to indicate compared to other reviews that the battery life got significantly worse with a move to skylake and dropping down to 1080p for 4K, which simply makes no sense at all. I made a question thread here as a result.

This laptop ticks all the other boxes, size, performance, weight, etc. But >2hr battery, yeah, not happening.

 

I think something may be up with those numbers too.

 

The battery they had is 47 whr. Mine is 52 (4640 mah). Between that and the single M.2, I don't think I'll be trading up.

 

Is there any firm information on which drivers from Broadwell do not work in a GS60-064 Gen 4 Haswell Machine?

 

They are the same PCB so they are pretty much identical in everything.
The Broadwell BIOS contains distinguish the difference.

 

Hey guys, so I have the Skylake GS60...It's randomly been very sluggish with web browsing, lots of lag with Google Chrome, especially on youtube. All the videos skip like crazy and my laptop temporarily pauses...which is crazy because my XPS 15 from 2011 handled this with no problem....so i switched to MS Edge thinking it was the browser and now my screen flickers pink and black...
I'm going to exchange it for a new one at Best Buy but it makes me really sad. The bios is a huge annoyance to update, I dont even know what drivers my laptop needs or what it doesn't need...Dell made a joke for me,it was all easy to do. I may just return the MSI and just save my money for something else. :/
I'm not sure.

Dont mind my brother instigating..

 

I don't know what did you put into your laptop, but i want these pills also.

 

I really don't want the pill. Now i have to return it :/
Is anyone else's skylake sluggish with web browsing?

 

Hey guys I was looking at upgrading to the new skylake. However had a few questions about the SUPER PORT or the usb c which is supposed to support dual 4k monitors. Does anyone know where you find the cables/dock to support this? Do you need special monitors? What is the max # of displays you can support on the new GS60. They show the system with 2 other displays in the visuals section? Thanks!

 

Good evening, been trying to install utilities on my GS60 2QE win10. I'm running into some issues and have some questions.

-MSI battery Calibration runs but won't finish calibrating. Mins remaining timer goes up and down

-is MSI remind manager useful and worth downloading?

-What is MSI boot configure? and is it something I should get?

-Does Supercharger apply to GS60 2QE? I don't see the Supercharger imprint near USB outlets.

-Should I download the steelseries keyboard utilities from win8.1 utilities list?

Thanks in advance!

 

Sorry I can only answer the last one I downloaded the 8.1 utilities of steelseries on my clean install for windows 10. I thought I remember my machine coming with "super charger" but I usually just charge my phone on other wall cables.

[please someone help with the other questions]
p.s. I disabled the steelseries on boot because I frequently shut down my PC. I hate the lag one you boot before the keyboard is fully working. But it is there if i want to enable to have the keyboard look pretty colors/,macros

 

For those who have Windows 10, have you run into issues with stability or is it as solid as under Win 8.1? Are all games working properly? I just downloaded drivers for my GS602QE directly from Nvidia, now my Geforce experience suggested new settings for GTAV including Nvidia TXAA. after getting drivers from Nvidia instead of MSI the game runs SO much better. If I upgrade I will get most drivers from the Broadwell version or the component manufacturers website.(I'm on Haswell)

 

Thanks for the reply, I will install the win8.1 driver of steelseries. Hopefully others can chime in for my other questions.

I also have the GS60 2QE Hashwell. Win10 is so much better than Win8.1 in my experience. Haven't tried any games yet so I can't really speak for it, but I assume it will work as good or better than Win8.1. I'm getting my Win10 drivers and utilities from MSI's website under Broadwell:
http://www.msi.com/product/notebook/support/GS60-2QE-Ghost-Pro-5.html#down-driver&Win10 64

 

Bluetooth not finding my device on GS60 2QE win10. Anyone running into this issue?

Edit: nevermind, issue solved.

 

Cool, thanks. I assume you did a clean install, I will probably do that too. Are you using Dragon Gaming Center? Personally I find it unnecessary. The different power modes can't be set while on battery, and there is no point being in green mode while plugged in. Also, this can be achieved by simply using the windows battery saver power option.

Does DGC actually over-clock the system? Because AFAIK the 970m does this automatically. When I check the clocks using an overlay it goes to the same hz as DGC allows. Also Geforce Experience comes with a tool to lower the FPS to 30 when on battery, so in my opinion DGC isn't needed.

 

Quick qestion: The Ghost Pro 2QE Haswell came with Windows 8.1 Pro, correct? I just upgraded to Windows 10 but the Home edition got installed. Is this right?