MSI GT660 with Nvidia GTX285M

oh! that's right. I forgot it was 16:9...

 

the 16:9 makes me sad, that and the 285m... so close to creating the perfect laptop. If it was 16:10 with a 5870...oh man

 

285M is still a very,very good performing GPU.
Almost as good as the 5870 but obviously without DX11.

 

I don't have a prob with the performance, but it's a card that runs hot and could ruin portability

 

It does not run hot if a laptop has decent cooling.
It runs great on CLEVOS but they have a 2 fan setup so that really helps I'm thinking this model will too since it's going to be one of there Elite gaming laptops.

 

Is this laptop going to be sold in US or is it Europe only?

 

Damn..... still waiting for this notebook to be released to public. I heard it will release sometime in April.

 

haha last I heard was july-august for NA

 

Do you have source ?

 

I was looking at it on the web from sites talking about the GT 660. It said it will be released mid April and that the price is $ 1800 ish.

 

late april was cited by notebookitalia in a link earlier in this thread... not many days left in april

 

Bu that's EU release date. Is the price $1800 a "semi- confirmed" price or is it likely to be lower (I hope)?

 

$1800 seems to be pretty steep for this.
It better have a very good i7, at least a 820QM to justify it's price.
No way I'm willing to pay that much when there are other laptops that come with a 5870 that are much cheaper.

 

I told you all

I blame it really down to the sound guys haha .

I'd only pay this kind of cash if it is true premium material, and im talking against sony notebooks (The older ones at that.)

 

The only thing which is making me lean more towards the GT660 are the speakers (which I really miss in my G51).
I haven't heard the G73 speakers, nor the new MSI ones, but a difference of ~$450 between the two, is quite big, also considering the fact that the G73 has a 5870 and is considerably faster.

I think the price would be half justified if the sound is VERY good, I mean really outstanding.

Do you know if it will have the option of switchable graphics?

 

Doubt it, it's built with i7 quads and the 285m isn't capable of optimus

 

For $20 I got very nice sounding external speakers, No speakers are worth the extra premium.
Even the rumored 3D display is just a novelty act.
I'd rather have a nice quality screen than one with a feature that is going to fail.

 

Naa i disagree Ikas, i mean you can easily get good externals, but a very good set of speakers on the laptop itself is worth it, and im sure the screen will be good too.

I mean the gt725's/1722 rack is really good in my oppinion but i'm enclined to think this'l blow it away.

 

For me the whole point of a multimedia/ gaming laptop is that you have all these features packed in one package which includes speakers. When your paying a lot ($1800 [maybe]), then you want all the components o be of highest quality or eprformance (the hardware is already top of the line, so other components need to be also good to justify this unconfirmed price IMO)
However it all really depends what are the priorites when choosing a laptop. Last time, when i was choosing mine, i didn't even look/ check at the speakers. Now appart from high performance hardware I want good speakers/ screen quality in a laptop. ... I think this actually orginates after I've heard the MBP 17" speakers and had a chance to compare a basic screen to a top quality panel, that is when I started to think about it.

IMO the 1600x900 res is good, a middle ground between the 1366x768 and FHD, although a perfect one would the 1680x1050 IMO

 

Well you have to understand that this is a gaming/multimedia laptop featuring USB 3.0. Assuming your going to be transferring files and all that, I still think the price is okay, a bit pricey still but fair enough. Hell, I'd be willing to buy a Dell XPS 16 with the highest part for over $3000 which still wouldn't compensate for much that this notebook offers.

I mean why would people buy a Dell XPS 16? I has bad chassis which blocks vents and a old graphics card and bad technical support all together. Yet people pay $1500 at least when buying it. So how is buying a notebook with a good graphics card with lots of support, USB 3.0, great sound quality and screen not worth $1800.

Most people buy the Dell XPS 16 for the RGB LED screen..... so people will buy the GT660 for ....... ?

I currently have a HP Pavilion dv6428ca, which is okay for web browsing nowadays. Playing even mid range requirement games is out of the question. The notebook has been good to me, it was the series with the 'problems' but was fixed, and no major issues since then. The screen quality is good, the speakers crackle at high pitch sounds, other than that its fine. The major issue is that I can't run multiple programs at once with a 2GB RAM. So practically anything is better than what I have now, yet I still want a notebook which will last me 4-6 years to come and I think this is it.

 

The Dell XPS 16's RGB is misleading because it's not the same quality as in the Alienware. Many LED screens apparently are actually better than that one, heh, it's what you get if you just go by name and don't do the research.

But for everyone worth it differs. For some @ $1,800 they have to have i7 720QM minimum with FHD 1080p and dual fan cooling etc etc.

But this notebook is very nice looking, if they can change the shiny for matte, it would be one sick notebook in terms of appearance. Laptop speakers for cost seems a bit steep. For me, laptop speakers are terrible no matter how awesome they may be, 1 inch speakers are never good, wouldn't care if they were made by Mr. Lansing himself or by Wharfedale, they would still suck.

I would have to agree though, the GT660 is a much better looking laptop than the Alienwares.

 

Performance and sound quality, I think.

They can sound 'good' and examples for that are HP HDX and MBP 17".

 

You and I have very different standards on what we consider to be good for speakers. Even my G73 notebook's speakers destroy MBP's and I don't consider these to be remotely good.

 

I tend to prefer using a good pair of headphones over laptop speakers.

 

Agreed.
Most laptops have crap speakers anyway so I'm used to using a nice pair of earbuds/headphones.
Good speakers is not at the top of my list when purchasing a laptop.
It would be nice but so used to not having them it's not a priority, the USB 3.0
is a nice addition.

 

The longer MSI takes to release this machine the worse that GTX285M looks.

Rumors are even Nvidia may have a new model number to announce at Computex in June and that will turn people off to the GT660.

 

MBP speakers i have to say are terrible, HP are not so bad but not magic either, GT725's are nice after some calibration and break in of like over 100 hours of music/sound,

And nvidia dont have anything atm so i dont think it matters what they've planned, but at the end of the day its still a high end card, the price will probably fall before release too.

 

You don't need a released product only the hint that a product may be released and people will hold off on buying.

For example.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/452370-m17x-refresh-buyers-why-not-wait-ati-5870s.html

 

Yeh I do agree the GTX 285M being released with the GT 660 as time goes on before its release, is just going to make the notebook that much of a turn off. Still good but probably will not be worth the price later on. I just hope that maybe the retailers for the GT 660 who can customize it will be able to fix a new GPU on. Maybe MSI should just get a better GPU before its release, as a last minute change. Still the fact remains this is a gaming/multi-media and the graphics card is only supposed to provide great graphics with more features.

 

Yes this is true, so either they will need to change the GPU which in my opinion is very unlikely, as they already announced the model, or do something with this price range. Otherwise their flaghshp model will be a failure in sales.

Any source for these rumors?

Heh, I wonder what you would call the speakes in an ASUS G51 then...

 

Not neccesarily true, the m17x is an upgradable platform, and i can tell you now people wont hold off and swap, but just buy the GPU's seperate, and they've allready been pulled down from the dell website .

As for the MBP i've heard, i think it has something to do with windows 7 that its sounding so bad, just the sound levels are really quiet,

The g51, im not sure, i've not heard enough asus's,

The m1730 had an ok set of speakers (No dedicated sub.) brilliant off what it had.

The xpsstudio 16 was a nice machine, great screen, decent sound system (With sub), and not a bad chasis actually. Really good entertainment platform in my oppinion.

 

Fudzilla - Computex time for Fermi 2

People have already held off buying the M17x for close to 5 months now because they had no guarantee that existing M17x models would be allowed to upgrade (talk is the R1 supposedly can't upgrade), or if offered aftermarket, how much the upgrade would cost to do it later. Now even if Dell picks up those sales that 5 months of people waiting to buy will still be a loss, since not only did it slow down sales it's also earnings that Dell cannot report to it's stockholders.

And none of that was based on anything solid info direct from Dell that the M17x would even be offered with Mob. HD5870s....only rumors. Now rumors that the CF option for Mob. HD5870 will be back next week is keeping people from ordering again.


Just because a notebook uses a standard MXM connection does not guarantee that you will be able to upgrade the GPU in the future....and with the GT660 you don't even know yet if it is a standard MXM.

 

No its not, its using a new standard of MXM, people Count on the m15x and m17x (Which have been upgraded by the way, with 5870 - refering to the 15x which uses same slot) that it'l work, and it will without a doubt, some people have held off, but when the clevo 5870s hit the NBR market, they sold within well they dissapeared lets say that,

Theres a shortage of 5870's so they'l put it back up, but i doubt that it'l be ready, as for the 285 in the 660, msi will most likely stick with that, why? because its not at a disadvantage at all, and a mainstream notebook doesnt need an enthusiast level card at all.

 

A $1800 price tag is not really mainstream, and you do already have cheaper machines with better cards.
I also doubt they will change it, but if they stick with this price then I would guess the sales are not going ot be very succesfull. It also depends if they will include the 3D screen or not.

 

Mainstream entertainment can cost a bomb, which is why i said the quality must be along side say a big brand like sony (mac can just get lost ) i've payed 1500 for a decent sony machine before, and paying for that was worth it i can say, which is why MSI has to actually build this thing properly, cool, decent sound, stirdy build, but i dont think it'l live up the 1800 price tag, it'l have to come down.

 

yea, entertainment system doesn't means it should necessarily be cheaper than a gaming rig, like the dell xps

 

But this is a gaming rig!
Who puts lights on the sides of a "entertainment" laptop?
Anyway the high price seems to be the big problem with this laptop.
Maybe once it is released it will be less than the quoted $1800.

 

why do you think they left the turbo mode feature in this laptop?

 

Its really hard to say what it is, but just think, people actually do pay premium pricing on things like mac or sony, this is a perfect example of machines not actually needing the best "hardware", take mac for example, not enthusiast level hardware, but they sure as hell are popular.

 

Well we can at least all agree this laptop is too expensive..lol
No matter what GPU they use.
Turbo feature is most likely like they have on the ASUS G73 and i7's, only OC about 7%.

 

Probably, unless its like previous msi models which had changable OC at one point.

 

I would argue that the majority of mac users aren't "power" users (as elitist as that sounds). They just want a reliable machine with no problems that will handle everyday tasks and a mac certainly does that. Brand recognition can do a lot for you these days. Wondering if MSI will ever become known as widely as other brands...

 

Well when i go on holiday, i often tend to find 1 main machine at the deck of every dance club lol and it tends to be MSI in business', nightclubs, everywhere, i dont see many in the UK (Except the winds) but i think that MSI are very reliable machines.

As for Mac, i still dont think the price for the hardware they get is justifiable, only in the imac desktop thingys is it truly worth it, but as you say, brand name and reliability easily outway the hardware in this case, just like the sony when i got it years ago

 

most of the msis I see people using are the winds. I've already had a few friends tell me they had never heard of msi

 

Cyprus is flooded with MSI hehe, i was amazed to look up to every 2nd floor of the super market to see the barebones being used like crazy,

And in the nightclubs one touches everywhere (I think onetouch) - the all in one pc thing.

 

interesting, well the pc market is a lot more mature in europe imo

Over here in NA all the mainstream users know are dell/sony/mac, acer and asus are catching on lately

 

In my experience,99% of people I know who switched from PC to Mac, is because spending $30 a year for virus protection is more expensive than spending $1,500 on a MacBook Pro.

I know this makes no sense and the math is completely wrong, but that's the point. And I'm serious, I'm not kidding. This is the reason I'm given 99% of the time.

Also apparently it's Microsoft's fault they download viruses...

 

People are silly.
But its true, everything comes down to simplicity at the end...
Your average user wont be like me, posting in every thread to see temps, fps, etc...
Most people just want functionality, they want to log into facebook, lol @ pics, youtube, homework @ word,excel, etc.. and thats IT...
oh, and taking webcam pics, and editing them.... but thats basically it..

Mac, indeed, offers that functinoality, without the need of antivirus, or being "afraid" someone is just gonna hack into your pc...

I also know people that switched to mac... but, based on trend as a priority, point b being simplicity/functionality.

I believe that all computers, if build right, might catch on as the "next macbook"...

After all, no one cares about vantage performance...

but if youre reading this, then you do, so stop thinking about macbooks.

 

Yeah sure!
It's not those bad sites they visited. lol

 

Well the bootcamp usage rate lately has spiralled high, blame that on 7

Anyway, i hope the 660 is good, it'd be a real shame for them to release a new class of NB and it be fail.