MSI GT72 Dominator-405

Attempting to keep things under 2k, pre-tax. SO bought herself a similar GT70 based on a co-worker's suggestion and I can't find much fault in it. However, this model seems fairly new and the only review I could find is XOTIC's video, which is just an attempt to hock the damn thing.

MSI USA GT72 Dominator (GTX 970M)

Good buy for the money?

 

I would vote for the GT70 instead of the GT72, since it has an upgradable CPU instead of a soldered one like in the GT72.

 

GT72 is by far one of the best gaming notebooks offered by MSI after many years of development as well as evolution.
Since it's the newest model, the price is going to be higher than previous models, however still a good buy when compared against its competitions.

 

Hey guys i have a 970m gt72, and i was just curious as to how the ram is arranged in these gt72 dominator sku's, it says 12gb so would that mean there is 3x4gb or 2x6gb or 1x8gb + 1x4gb?, and also how these are arranged within the four slots inside the laptop, are the ones under the keyboard filled first?

 

Who would do the upgrading though? Certainly not me. Barely trust my PC builds.

Also, good retailers to work with?

Was looking at B&H.

 

There are still some minority who can afford the upgrade, but since this group isn't majority or perhaps MSI wanted to reduce cost on the socket itself thus why it was removed.

 

Install CPU-Z
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

The SPD will show you the memory module size and the slot it's in.

Slots one and three are paired as are slots two and four for dual channel.

There's 2 slots on each side of the mainboard

I suggest you open the bottom and view what modules are in the 2 slots that you can see.

 

What is the full model number? If it is the GT72 Dominator-216 then it will be 1x8GB and 1x4GB. They install those under the keyboard by default so you'll have two open slots under the bottom panel.

 

The GPU (guaranteed up gradable by MSI to the next chips) is what matters gaming wise and the CPU is more than good enough to last for some time.

 

GentechPC easy. They will care more about your PC than you will.

 

It is the gt72-205AU

edit: just used cpu-z and it appears its also a 4+8 configuration.

Does using a 4+8 config make it so that dual channel isnt usable anymore? ive read in a few places that if its uneven amounts of ram it goes into single channel mode.

 

8GB will be dual channel (the 4GB stick and the first 4GB of the other are interleaved while the remaining 4GB is left single channel).

This is how it works on modern IMC (Integrated memory controllers).

 

As long as you have them in identical pair then dual channel will work.

 

The modules do not need to be identical to run in dual channel operation; i.e. 1 x 4 GB and 1 x 8 GB will run in asynchronous dual channel.

 

Glad to have found this post. Been asking XOTIC PC and GenTech PC and could not get a straight answer out of either of them regarding which slots are in which channel:

Are the slots under the keyboard A1 / A2 and the easily accessible slots underneath B1 / B2? None could answer this.

So if it's slots 1 / 3 and 2 / 4, which slots are under the keyboard and which are underneath (the easily accessible ones)?

 

The motherboard defines the slots under the main hatch as slots 3 and 4 so that would lead me to believe they are B1 and B2.

 

WhatsThePoint mentioned that the slots paired for dual channel are 1 and 3 then 2 and 4. If the motherboard sees the slots under the main hatch as 3 and 4 that means the channels are split up:

Below the keyboard:
1 and 2

Below the main hatch:
3 and 4