MSI GX640-098US Review

Just an FYI, I think we have a somewhat permanent solution to the PowerPlay/PCIe @ x1/Suspend/Hibernate/Install 10.3 problem. Just disable PowerPlay. Here's the workaround to use similar features (cooler/quieter) of PowerPlay:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...lem-other-driver-problems-12.html#post6194261

 

Should have listened when I told you guys to disable powerplay.

 

It's not like you were the first to come up with the idea. Most of us worked things out quite a while ago, and buff-daddy is just summarizing.

 

Who then ? You ? Who mentioned 10.3 and powerplay before me ?

 

I think this might have been the first mention of disabling PowerPlay altogether, but at the very start of this thread buff-daddy had already determined that PowerPlay was the cause of the issue.

 

Do anyone know any good software to udervolt the i5s? My favourite RMclock cant recognize it... also did anyone managed to run ati tray tools with this+64bit win(bluDeath for me)?
I played a little with this machine and:

fixed the flex - just put out the keyboard. It was little misshapen probably by forcing it in harshly over the lower clamps. So i bent it back by hand and reseated it carefully and no flex ever since and no double sided tape needed.

fixed the too bright blue LEDs - I put some light spreading material between the panel and LEDs. It is still more bright than its necessary, but now it seems bearable... will see at night how much succes it was. I didnt know if I should cry or laught when I saw theres four LEDs around the power button...

PCIe@1x and blank screen fixed by using nonMSI driver. I cannot understand how could they missed such an issue, especialy considering it is present on every single gx640.

blank screen on boot (seems to be)"fixed" by switching off powerplay. Sadly it is insufficient to just set powerplay on high performance while switching off/hibernating PC.

and fixed annoing brightness switching by deleting the setting with powercfg. But now i cannot edit the profiles with Power manager(GUI) . Does anyone know better solution?

also I found that rendering 3D scene creates quite noticeable interference in the speakers, when they are silent.

Loud music on speakers realy causes resonance of the panel. The cause is loose bottom right corner of the panel. If you manage to fix it down(or up ) everything is OK. On thorough test the machine seems to naturally resonate on 400*n Hz, but its nothing noticeable in real music. Only putting pure 400Hz sound makes it obvious.

and BENCHMARKS yaaay: 1280x1024(scaling off) default settings 3D06: 11667 3DV: 7258( makes me woder how much it will be without PhysX testing. Also did anybody else noticed shadow glitch(es) on the battleship ? )
Heaven FPS 17.9/ Score 450 EDIT on Catalyst 10.5 pre EDIT2 heaven at 1680x1050

 

Allow me to just... self-serving-ly bump this thread

 

@min2209, aren't you the OP of this thread? Care to add anything new/exciting to your review, or let us know how your treasure is doing?

 

It's doing OK, everything's as expected.

One odd thing though: I tried GTA4 on my computer, but the stuttering is terrible. Installing latest patches didn't help. Why is that?

Other than that, some thoughts I have is: does anyone have a balance with which they can weigh the machine? Some people say the full weight including battery is 7lb+...

And lastly: consider peeling off some of the stickers on the right palmrest, that's the hottest part of the notebook and I think it's going to make a mess in the long run.

 

Sounds good. You've been very helpful. Hopefully you can solve the GTA4 issue. By any chance are you playing off a disc, or a virtual drive (ISO mounted)?

 

Friend's steam account. Wanted to try it..

 

The only way to improve performance is installing patch #4 , #6 will bring any GPU to its knees with the new shadows etc.

 

I also recommend to take out the express card plastic cover from the right hand side - it is quite an amount of free space (if not used) and providing easier airflow may help to reduce heat on right palm rest.

 

You are very right! I haven't even thought of that. Thanks!

 

Doesnt that make the lappy super prone to dustiness? Or is that easily taken care of by taking the back cover off and spraying with compressed air?

 

You cant dustproof notebook... I would rather have more dust on my expresscard,which I do not use, than loud fan. But I am afraid the effects of taking it off are minimal especialy on idle. I think it is not lack of air but lack of playing with fan tables that makes it loud.
What about taking the SIM cover(without the SIM port) off? It would make hellofa airhole
EDIT the express card is on the same side of the notebook as the hot parts so what do I know... it could make a difference

 

Well, when or if I do get this notebook, I'll be using a cooler with it, which will sit atop an old Calc textbook. Hopefully temps wont be blazing hot in this Cali weather by that time.

 

Yeah!! Mine is shipped!

From NCIX, for the matchprice of 1129$ from greytech.com
For a total of 1246$ with expressRMA and Express shipping.

I will test crysis/stalker/bad company 2 when I will recieve it, maybe tomorrow!

 

Damn! I got it for $1160 pricematched Canada Computers... ah well.

 

Does the touchpad have a scroll zone on the side(due to lack of multitouch)?

 

yes it has a scroll zone. works very well i might add.

 

Also you can use Synaptics driver to configure touchpad to your liking

 

Alright good, lack of multitouch is fine then.

 

yes! great i was wondering about this.

 

What is the HDD of GX640? Could someone make a HDD benchmark with HD Tach and post the results: random access time, max speed, min speed, read burst speed ? I would gladly appreciate that.

 

If they would just ditch the red paint and cheesy 'gamer approved' cheese grater above the keyboard I'd be rocking one of these in no time.

 

if the keyboard wasn't so bad i would get it straight away, i probably wont get it, ill either get g73 rbbx or just wait.

 

What's wrong with the keyboard? Please elaborate, and compare to other notebook models/brands if possible.

Thanks!

 

Well, there's the swapped Fn and Ctrl keys, which I don't mind because I use Caps Lock for my Ctrl. Then there's the keyboard flex, which isn't noticeable while typing and can be fixed with a bit of duct tape if you can be bothered. These things I don't really care about.

Some keys on the right hand side are squashed in order to get the numpad in, but this doesn't bother me and as an engineer that numpad is going to be handy to me, so to me that's a positive overall.

However, the keys do have a somewhat mushy feel, and I get the impression that something could break. I've already had to take one key off and put it back on to get it to work properly again.

 

Keyboard isn't the great indeed. Most criticisms heard are quite right, but the most annoying thing has got to be the stupid layout : why cram a (from my point of view) useless numpad in a 15" notebook ??

 

Numpad is not useless in any notebook. Just this one is designed with too much sacrifice on arrow keys and overall layout. Yet when you start to work with something that involves numbers (especially international users, where national language-specific symbols are placed instead of numbers as a fourth row of letters). So yes, numpad is extremely useful for non-english users.
After longer using I got used to this keyboard and have no inconvenienences while typing/gaming. Even ctrl isn't that badly placed.

 

Also try sid meiers pirates! You will like the presence of numpad then
But sadly it really steals place from the standard Enter and arrows I am used to use when working.

The look of the notebook is better than the classic cheapy looking universal gray. I think the red trim makes nice color with the coal-black. I even like the way the "G series" is written so subtly. It shouldn't be something one is ashamed of on business meetings. Quite the opposite the others should be ashamed for their crappy (looking) notebooks What gives it away is unfortunately the red WASD highlighting(which btw is making the keys less visible in dark) and the "back to the future" style panel.

 

This has to be one of the most upgradeable, easy to work on laptops I've ever seen. Sure, it has it's problems but I'm the kind of person who likes to change and modify things and I'm getting one. I almost got an Asus G51JX but I think this will be much better.

I recently bought an MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard, it was my first time with MSI. I had some problems with the motherboard but I was impressed with MSI's tech support so I guess I'll be jumping ship from Asus for a while.

 

These machines are the easiest machines to upgrade in the world, thats all i can say,

Just knock on the back door, pop the screws out, and bobs your uncle, everythings sat right infront of you.

 

This is true. The layout internally is so simple anyone can take a look around and figure out what is what. No crazy taking out the keyboard or removing 3 other parts to get to the hard drive.

 

Does that mean cleaning out for dust will be a breeze? Yipee. Couldnt even gain access to underneath the keyboard on this damn HP. So many screws, levers, pulleys, and joints to go around. HP does this on purpose though, so that we cant upgrade easily and just buy new ones that they release like every other month.

 

Guys, after 2 days of non-posting I'm here to announce that...
I'm undergoing a business deal...
That will trade my V6 mustang for a GT... I'd have to give money... but I already sold my SXPS16...
So, if everything turns out correctly; I'd have money to buy my laptop still...
If I have ENOUGH, w860cu...
if not, its GX640 for sure.

$1100 is frankly unbeatable.

 

Got a question that's being asked more and more these days.

Should I get (or wait until ncix has stock) the GX640 or stay with my ordered (backordered so waiting on shipment then they will ship it to me cause I paid already) MSI E7405? The specs are pretty much the same except you got the cpu clocked at 2.53, 320gb HD, 5870, and it's a 17in.

The price I got it for (after pricematch) was 1288. I COULD HAVE pricematched the gx640 (at the time) for about 1208. The prices are inc. taxes and shipping btw. CAD prices.

I really don't know what to do any more! I've been fighting this problem of the 2 laptops for a while now and now that I've been waiting since the 10th of May for the e7405, I am really thinking of just opting for the gx640 instead.

Can someone shed some light on this matter please?

And oh yea, if I'm lucky, I can get the gx640 (after pricematch) for about 1211. If I can't then it will be about 1230.

Thanks in advance!

 

E7405 has 75 more mhz on its video card.

 

yea I know. That isn't a lot right? And I'm just a bit confused as to whether it is a lot better or just a bit...cause on notebookcheck, the benchmarks vary a lot.

If you click on the fps numbers, it shows what laptop produced the number. The highest fps usu. is output by the gx740. I was just concerned that the e7405 could be as powerful as that...though I kind of doubt it since it's a couple hundred dollars less.

here are the links:
Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Notebookcheck: Review MSI GX640-i5447LW7P Notebook

They're pretty much the same on further inspection...however I was just wondering how come for say..ANNO 1440, there is such a big difference in fps.

As well, is the extra like $60-80 worth it? (waiting and getting the e7405) or should I just get the gx640. Cause looking at it more and more, it seems like the more logical choice now.

e7405
The GPUs are practically the same...the 5870 is just a bit better in most games and perhaps a lot better in certain types of games (dont know what the type is.)
CPU is .25ghz faster (I read it isn't that much)
screen size is 17in.
HD is -180GB
and that's it....possibly better heat management and noise reduction? Not sure...

MANNNN and it seems like all the places that sell gx640 have upped their prices!!!! Omg...I should have bought it over the damned e7405. I could have pricematched it for 1130 now I got to pricematch it for 1157 lol...

 

Well actually in a game like Anno 1440 there is alot of work being done by the CPU. And the i7 has alot more power behind it then the i5's. That is where your getting the huge difference.

 

ohhhhhh so that's the reason. I guess ANNO supports more than 2 cores? Cause most games only support 1-2 cores lol... I guess that's why there isn't a big difference between a lot of the other game benchmarks between say the gx740 (or another laptop with similar specs...an i7QM and 5870) and gx640?

So would you think it's wise to get the gx640 instead? Cause I honestly have no clue when the e7405 will be coming and ncix doesn't know either!

Thanks again for your timely responses! Makes this headache not hurt so much so-to-speak.

 

I wonder how much of a difference it really makes with these processors. I think the turbo boost feature of the new core ix series will use multiple cores regardless of wether or not the app is coded to take advantage of them.

 

I'm not sure...but judging from the benchmarks, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, fps wise. Though for things like programming, rendering, photoshopping, etc, I am not sure of.

 

Honestly don't see the point of getting a high powered CPU at all. In my use so far, I have never been bottlenecked by the CPU.

Also: the notebook runs significantly cooler now that I put it on a (large) cooling pad with the large bottom panel pulled off. This is especially noticeable now that the weather's hot... I'd like to look into the other thread about the heatpad/heat sink mod for a more permanent solution though. As it is, the thing hasn't left my desk for two weeks...

 

Maybe you should try death's back cover mod Bullet Riddled back Cover And then only mod you'll need will be a thermal paste-repaste with a MX-3.

And about bottleneck wont feel now maybe a year or two down the line.
And I really hope some ultra-cheap ES proccy hit the market so you guys can update.(Death's and Blazin's Qx9200 are equal to the Core i7 920XM)

 

Two years down the line you'll probably be wanting a new graphics card as well, so the CPU won't really be much of a worry.

 

Yeah, those guys are lucky they get MXM 3.0. We arent getting any newer MXM 2.1 cards that are powerful than the ones already in our machines

 

2 years down the line we'll be talking about some other piece of yet unknown technology put out by intel or AMD. And these i#'s will be old news lol.

 

the gx640 seems like the perfect laptop for me, except one thing: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T MSI SUPPORT SWITCHABLE GRAPHICS?
It drives me nuts!
there must be a hack to fool it to be able to switch :<
how does the switching technology work?