MSI GX640-098US Review

ahh...but I don't need to worry about that lol since I dont plan on upgrading anything other than the RAM.

 

If your talking to the left of the touch pad that's usually where a HDD sits. And they tend to get pretty hot.

 

Hmm.. the HDD also sits on the left on the GX640. Never felt any heat from it. On the other hand, the memory that sits to the right of the touchpad can get pretty warm.

 

only bad thing is that the vent is on the right side...and I'm right handed lol

 

Naa, that really doesnt effect, you actually dont keep the laptop so close, so as to make your hand come in line with the vent, I mean keep a appropriate distance between you and screen, and you'll realise that the vent doesnt bother(except when you mistakenly keep your cellphone and its warm as if kept in an oven, )

 

lol nah my cellphone won't be near my laptop like that...and my hand is usually...like 6-8inches away from the right side of the laptop? hopefully that's enough to not make my hand really hot lol

 

makes a good coffee warmer too

 

There's a review for the GX640 on CNET: MSI GX640-098US - Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine

tl;dr Reviewer states that the $3k Alienware machine performs better than this budget notebook, becomes master of the obvious. Typical CNET stuff.

 

we didn't need to know that

 

doubt it

 

lol what? I was just merely stating that I'm right handed when I using a mouse and was hoping that the vent wouldn't push out air hot enough to make my hand uncomfortable...there's no hidden perverted meaning man....get your head out of the gutter lol

 

I am also right handed (without any pervert thoughts) and I thought it would be hard to get used to it, but it's better than I could imagine - I can keep a bottle of a cold beer (or some food) just in reach of my left hand and I don't have to worry the beer gets warm Just sweet

 

oh so there isn't a whole lot of heat being forced through the vent and onto the mouse and hand? That's good to know. Last thing I want is to constantly have to blow on my hand lol

 

It's plenty hot if you put your hand there when there's significant load, but it's not difficult to put your hand elsewhere.

 

If its really that big of a deal put something that "bounces" the heat 90deg north of the laptop.

 

Great review and very helpful discussion!
This is my first gaming laptop

I've been up reaserching tell like 2-3am!!! I found this laptop to be the best one for me. I've been looking at laptops, comparing graphics cards, and prossesors for like 5 months now.

I've never modded a laptop before and it looks a lot harder than fixing a desktop, but we'll see!
I'm going to try out the copper shims and use the arctic silver 5 thermal paste.

As I understand, you put just enough thermal paste to cover the GPU and shim(both sides), the less I use the better, so there's more space for the shim. Just to fill in the gap for a cooler laptop!

If it goes well, I'll do the same for my CPU!

Thanks

My MSI GX640-098US
Scheduled Arrival Date: 06/04/10

 

Hey G4 and welcome, wouldn't using mx-3 or icd7 be more appropriate when working with the different shims etc (since your going to be working very closely to the electronis, non conductive paste really works well here.)

 

Yes, and AS5's kind of outdated now.

 

Seriously? Dang I've been living in the past then. Till this day I still think its the most dominant paste.

 

Thanks for the fast reply and good advise! (+1 rep for both of you!)
I get my laptop(GX640) a day early, so it comes today!!!

I'm going to get the arctic cooling MX-3 thermal Paste then. With the kind of games I'll be playing, I could use all the cooling I can get! To keep the GPU from burning and also to help the battery last a bit longer.

I'm also going to use that double sided tape to put under the keyboard. That's an easy fix!

When I get that all done... I would say "this laptop is by far the best bang for the buck out there for the size(15.4") and graphics card(ATI Radeon™ HD 5850)!"

 

Haha thats kind of the charm of the GX640, it doesn't come perfect, a bit of a fixer upper at times but once you get this baby ready to go, boy is it great

As a small aside, mine suffered it's first drop a couple days ago. A small dent on the red plastic but nothing too bad. I'd say about 2-3 feet still works just fine.

 

I got my laptop on the 3rd and Its better than I expected!

Fixes:
-The keyboard is good, so I wont bother to add double sided tape!
-My shim or past didn't come in the mail yet, but the GX640 is still very good!

Games:
I watched a video of someone playing Dirt 2 maxed out with a upgraded CPU at 24-25fps. When I played It without any upgrades, it was at 25-26fps. I found out that an upgraded CPU isn't needed, the stock one is already good enough! I think the guy just started recording when the laptop was a bit hotter.

I recorded me playing Dirt 2 and crashing a lot, because I was using my left hand to film.
YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out Dirt 2

Different race on replay to show that I can race and casual difficulty lol!
(Also on the GX640)
YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out Dirt 2 Replay

Another Impressive break through!!!
It can run ArmA 2 maxed out!
YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out ArmA 2

MSI GX640 maxed out Command and Conquer 3, this was expected...
YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out Command and Conquer 3

Thats all the videos I made so far.
I'll keep making videos as I get more games installed.
I plan on making one for Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Crysis 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead, Starcraft 2, and thats all I can think of right now.

I love this laptop!
--------------------------------
MSI GX640

 

Great videos. Although in the future using a video capture program like FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software Would work alot better then just pointing a video camera at the screen.

 

That's a good idea, but the reason I didn't, was because that would've made the fps lower than it was. There was already a small lag in ArmA 2, so that would've made it worse.

I bet I could've used the screen capture on C&C 3 and still get above 25fps, so maybe next time I play an old game like that lol!

 

its not gonna effect much, its mostly using the HDD and some extra CPu time, there are alot of other videos of people doing it on the system with games that are arguably just as graphics heavy

YouTube - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Gameplay on MSI GX640

Doesnt seem like much loss. I'll be doing a review with all sorts of video's when i get mine.

 

I tried on my old desktop a screen capture software(xfire) and it lagged really bad, when I started to screen capture. The desktop had:
-AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor 3.2Ghz (over kill of a CPU)
-2048MB DDR2 RAM (low I know, I was saving up for this laptop)
-NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
-I dont know how fast the HDD is, but I would expect it to be way slower than 7200rpm!

This video you posted isn't using a screen capture, because the edges are cut off, and the colors would be a lot better. I think the MSI GX640 can play this with over 25fps maxed out, but this guy recorded to late when his laptop was hot. Thats why I think its lagging.

I would love to see your gameplay videos, when you got them!

 

If its not a screen capture prog what could it be then?

And xfire is a piece of crap compared to what a real program can do lol.

 

It looks like a 720p video camera on a tripod.
I've decided to just go with the camera, so the computer is not being slowed at all and to let people see that it's coming from the GX640 laptop!
Only when Im making benchmark videos of the GX640!
Other than that, I would use the screen capture software.

I just added 2 new videos on some of the most hardware demanding games!

YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out Crysis Warhead

YouTube - MSI GX640 Crysis Warhead on Gamer(high) and enthusiast(very high)

YouTube - MSI GX640 maxed out Flight Simulator X

 

Um.. what is the purpose of all of these videos? They look like absolute crap being recorded with a handheld camera.. and in 480p? You may as well have the graphics set low, cuz we can't tell the difference.

Why are you wasting your time?

 

Give the guy a break, he just wanted to share his joy with everyone, and make some jealous while doing so.

 

does it play Pr0n good, I'll watch those...... ;p

 

I do it because its new and not very many people know what the GX640 can do. I wanted to see how this played Crysis, but there were no videos from this laptop on youtube! Before I got this laptop, there were only like 2 videos that showed what the GX640 can do!

The 480 is correct, it's good enough to show what the GX640 is capable of with fps on high(really thats all we look for)!

 

Thanks for the videos. The whole world's a critic, eh? Keep up the good work.

 

I don't mind making the videos. I like to help out and thats why i'm on this site.
And...
For the people that get jealous, please do your self a faver and stop watching my videos. Thats not why I make them.

 

LOL, I was just kidding. It's definitely eye-candy to me though, keep 'em coming. In your downtime, can you benchmark PCSX2 emulator or Dolphin emulator?

 

G4...don't listen to the haters playa!

 

Your joking right? This thing can play Crysis on high!!

 

Thanks for the videos. What Catalyst version are you using?

 

Ya, but the emulators are CPU heavy, which is why I'm curious. I just wanna know if the i5-430m can handle them.

 

I didn't update anything yet, but the Catalyst Control Center Version is: 2009.1211.1547.28237

So what you saw in my videos was out of the box performance!

I never looked at this(Catalyst Control Center) and it looks like you can overdrive the GPU from there! Wow, this has it all lol! To bad im not going to use it...

 

Sorry, but I would never use it and I dont have that kind of time or want. Its safe to say that the GX640 can max it out to. Nothing is more demanding than Crysis!

 

Crysis is very demanding on the GPU, but not so much on the CPU. Asking about performance in CPU-limited gaming is a valid question. However, I don't know exactly how demanding on the CPU emulators are.

 

In this post I answered some questions about the GX640 and it might be helpful for some looking at this site:

I just graduated from Hight School as well! I just got this laptop less than a week ago lol! The fan: I read about it being too noisy for some, but I don't notice it at all. Does it get hot? I never played with it on my lap yet, because I only just got this less than a week ago. I play on it while it’s on my desk. I do put my hand by the fan to feel how hot it’s getting. It’s more of an air conditioner tell you start playing games lol. I’ll be on a very long flight from Idaho to Main very soon and that will be my first test. The 9-cell battery, it's the biggest I've seen in gaming laptops! I did buy an extra 9-cell battery because in the Military, there will be more traveling! There's a ECO button that’s very handy and another highlight for this laptop! It’s a one touch to over clock the CPU (gaming mode), second is the movie mode, third Presentation mode, fourth Office mode, fifth Turbo battery mode! Each mode after gaming uses less power!! It changes your settings automatically and it can't get easier than that! There’s also a sticker on here that’s from Energy Star. Thanks for watching and I'll be making more videos soon!

 

I dont get this post. Please 'splain.

 

I thought you could tell what the questions were, because of the answers I posted lol. You can find the question on my channel (Channel Comments):
YouTube - g4m3rleet's Channel

New video:
MSI GX640 maxed out Perfect World International(free game)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9mv6R5GURw

First video with Fraps screen capture: MSI GX640 maxed out Supreme Commander 2 in 1080p!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9RSFc_lNIU
With out screen capture running, the game gets 50-60fps maxed out!
--------
More with Fraps, this time over 30secs: They get 50-60fps without fraps!
MSI GX640 maxed out C&C3 Kane's Wrath pt1 in 1080p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnvHKJJRYY

MSI GX640 maxed out C&C3 Kane's Wrath pt2 in 1080p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H37HZ51k6Ws

 

does this have a firewire port? Great Review!!!!

 

uhhh....what just happened here?

 

Madness. Pure madness.

 

Yes, on the right side of the laptop, you'll see it!

 

I have a couple of questions:

-Is this where you guys download the latest drivers for the GPU:
ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

-Does the "msi BurnRecovery" include the OS(win7 64 bit)?

-What software do you use to see your temps?

-Is upgrading with a shim worth the risk, if you get 69-74c after 5-6hrs of BF: Bad Company 2 maxed out-med(at the end), online play? I looked at the overdrive settings, just to see temps. I think my temps are doing good with out the thim?!

New Video:
MSI GX640 maxed out Battlefield Bad Company 2 Online
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbxrQ_6CsSA