MSI GX740 with 5870 1gb ddr5

How easy is it to upgrade the RAM in an MSI laptop?

 

i'm loving the msi for a first laptop. need it more portable for college, but i like a big screen. nice performance so it'll be nice and future proof for a few years. seeing as i only like a few of the older games, everything should be dandy.

these machines do hold up nicely right? haha.

 

hello folks... just wanted to let you know that due to continual moving of ETA and only i5 processor here in the Europe ( i dont want to get GX740 shipped from US) i changed my decision and yesterday i ordered ASUS G73JH, hope you all will enjoy the GX740, i know its good piece of steel, but i compared it with Asus and other laptops one more time and found couple wastes... ( cooling system, processor, hdd, ntb design - Asus rock! ...) i know i will pay a bit more of money,but i assume i will pay for better performance and quality though...

 

interesting post from someone who decided to devote their username to MSI

cooling system - both are very good
processor - the same, but if they're offering an i5 in Europe I'd prefer an i7 (although some would actually prefer the i5)
hdd - 2 hard drive bays in the Asus is nice, especially since you can get an SSD and use one as a boot drive
design - subjective i guess

 

I should say .. SSD's good but not cheap..

 

I7 will most likely be released later, as for cooling, i'd probably still have my money on the MSI, especially for the GPU! and ofc a repaste job upgradability and noise level!

Wonder if i have any warrenty left ^^.

 

The cooling system of the G73 crushes the MSIs. I like the MSI for its weight and light, flexible sturdy build, but the G73's dual cooling system is a beast and it's relatively quiet too.

Based on preliminary tests with the 1727 and seeing as the GX740 looks to follow the classic MSI mold of jazzin' up the 1722/7 chassis for the GX740, I'm still a smidge wary about a quad core and 5870 in there under load both power consumption and heat wise, but an i5/i3 should be fine.



G73 also has a 1080 LED screen (You can always install a WUXGA+ LG panel in your 1722/7 which are rather nice).

A G73 can run a quad and a 5870 no problem with great temps and built in 7% overclock for all CPUs.

Cons?

Classic RMA syndrome a smidge, and to say the system hardware is not user accessible friendly is putting it mildly.

It comes with 8GB, but that is a 2GBx4 config.

Still can't find a 17" packing as much power as the MSIs that are so lightweight and sturdy. When you close the 172X chassis and carry it with one hand from the rear, there really is no give and it feels really secure to carry. The ridges on the 6-cell battery (which also help bring the weight down even more) is the icing on the cake for just moving it with ease. I find the 9-cell battery very ugly and obtuse, but if battery life is a must I understand. I love the 1722 sturdy build, and the 1727/740 just builds on that.

And as always, the keyboard is a love it/hate it proposition. And I love it.

MSI definitely targets the light and sturdy 17" market.

 

Help me out on this one plz, it's the only thing keeping me from deciding which one I prefer
If I go GX640 and upgrade the processor to and i7-620M and 6GB RAM
OR
GX740, default everything but with 8GB RAM

how much more battery life does the GX640 get? Throw out an estimate.

Also which one is competitive in terms of performance for longer?

 

^pretty much sums up why I'm getting the 1.3" thickness MSI over the blocky/thick asus

 

Minimum 2hrs. Might squeeze a little bit more .. but don't expect miracles.

As for memory go for the cheapest or stick with the 4gb default as it's pointless to go above as most won't take advantage of it.

Apart from metro 2033

 

Slightly disagree with the ASUS cooling, the G73, along with the W90 (Suprisingly) hit 100C+ in the furmark/occt territory, when i buy a laptop, i expect it to pass these extreme tests (My sony has, my asus has, my hp has, my MSI/Vent has) all without hitting that level of temperature, other then that, the cooling is very good with the asus, and the CPU is nice especially, especially when working with quads.

Asus as far as i'm aware also ship with decent paste (Better then stock junk.) Same with MSI, i think its shin etsu soemthing or other and my advent probably has toothpaste! (Cant remember.)

Msi's weight is great, anything heavier and i'd be depressed, although i've gone through two cheap bags because i store alot in my lappy bags, i need to invest in a solid one that doesn't loose its supports for the strap.

I've dropped the machine twice, had a dog jump on the lid, only a problem with the vga port has arrisen (Shattered solder?)

Cinema mode supposedly gives more res how they do that, is probably not possible but my toshiba tv compresses the pixels (Takes a couple of cm from the outside) and this works very well in terms of quality.

I'm hoping to dear god that MSI revise some of the cooling, the good thing is, NB+CPU are on the same die, i5 offers integrated switching, not sure about the GX740 though, bios i guess/mobo etc etc,

Theres alot of new room in the chasis which is why i feel MSI will do something, or thicken the pipes, i'd see that potentially working nicely, but like i said, for those expecting i7, they always have released dual versions first, so its entirely possible we will get i7-720 blah's popping up (Because we all got q9000 which is a good but low end quad in the mobile market.)

Not a clue on how many banks we have lol :S and i wonder if the 5870s have he tabs and how much power they require, personally MSI engineer the cards to work at lower power then to standard mobility releases, well i know that was the case with aw 4850 and msi 4850.

 

Well this is my issue, I have a $2000 student grant for a laptop, any money left over after purchase I have to give back.

Perhaps I just deck it out with a 820qm and invest in an external power supply?

 

Why would you buy an external power supply? you could deck it out but it depends really what you are wanting to do with the machine?

Wish i had money for the new machine haha! mind you anyone who can get hold of that medion should...999 for the hardware, is unbeatable on this market.

 

Well 2-2 1/2 might actually be enough so I won't need one. Depends on if I start taking 3 hour lectures. If you get a next to free $2000 laptop, 2-300 on an external battery for 5-6 hours of life aint bad

but the thing I wanted to know really was the smaller screen gonna affect battery life that much?

 

Yeah i suppose, i can just scrape 3 hours out of a 9 cell with nothing activated + lowest brightness, and this is just for note taking (Word.)

I think the screen really comes down to the lighting in the end, thats the main factor that will really suck the juice out of it.

A smaller screen should..in theory use less though haha.

 

haha in theory... but i'm thinking the GX740 will outlast the GX640 in terms of keeping up in terms of performance with the 5870, adn they're MSIs so big laptop doesnt mean big weight.

well yea the only time I'd be unplugged is for minimal use a browser window and note taking. I'll guess I'll try without and get an external if i find it useful

 

Yeah, you could just carry two cells with ya, put the machine into sleep during the quick change, the HDD should be snappy enough for you to not miss much .

 

I don't know if I like the idea of two batteries or an external better. Seems like an external would be more useful for using on future laptops/family when they need it. and it gives more time.

THere's also the issue of swapping in and out for recharging both that I don't like

 

You wanted portability .. there's no portability in carrying an external battery pack.

By the way , you do know that the battery sticks out on the G-series right ?

 

you could find a seat next to a plug.

2 batteries is more portable...

 

I can get a plug in most classes, again all comes down to how much I can squeak out, I think i'll be fine with a single battery.

There definitions of what I want isn't really "portable", I wouldnt mind if the laptop was 10 pounds if that meant I could get 4 hours of battery life.

And yes I know the battery sticks out

 

Hmm, theres always an M11X? and see if the MSI machine is cheap enough to use as the primary gaming rig, or even invest in a desktop?

The 11x is quite ideal due to its somewhat decent gaming potential (Excusing CPU intensive tasks) and its good GPU, but integrated really gives it 6-8 hours, which is what it is advertised as.

 

Well I was actually going to go sony vaio f until I found out the screen was 14". My eyes aren't great so I don't think I can go less than 15" and even 15 is kinda bleh for me

 

Really? I'm quite suprised, hmm is it the screen size or the res your working with? personally if your a bit "FOCUS DAMIT" with screens, then say a 15.6 inch with 1280x*** (I forget, have a sony with this and it is the way to go.), i hate large res on small screens, its utter rubbish lol.

Although m11x could be slightly small altogether lmao.

Dont know much about the 15x

 

Well for the last 3 years I've been working on a 1440x900 17" which i've been finding as just fine. I'm thinking 1680x1050 wouldn't be too bad. I'm loving the idea of the lower res screen on the MSI even though some ppl want it up. 1920x1200 on a 15" would be horrifying for me to read.

If the 15" can get me better battery life by 20mins+ I'll go with that. I can always hook up the laptop to my 22" 1920x1200 screen.

EDIT: Don't like the 15x cause of no numpad and a lil too flashy for my liking

 

lol vaio F is 16.4" (i was lookin for one before that;d)

 

lol oops i meant sony z

I got turned off the sony f for the meh GPU

 

100c on the CPU or GPU? I remember testing a QX9300 in my W90Vp and under Prime and OCCT it didn't break a sweat and hit mid to high 80's tops.
That's odd.

Another knock is the keyboard on the G73 with above average flex, some reported stiffness and strikes not showing up. Most agree it takes some getting used to which is a turnoff to me.

Listing out the pros and cons, outside of the glaring lack of an LED screen, to me, the MSI wins hands down.

Reports for the 5870 says it runs pretty warm as is (the memory especially). I know the 920XM throttled in a Furmark/Prime95 test in the 1727 pretty quickly which is why I went mod happy on the extra bottom cover I have and some heatsinks to bring it down under sustained load. Mind you, this was with a 28w Nvidia 250M. I shudder to think what would happen with a 5870 and a 920XM in the GX740. But I'm sure as is with the dual core and 5870 it work work fine. It is just if you have grand visions of tossing in a 720QM/820QM or the big daddy 920XM you might be in for a surprise.

All MSI needs to do really is thicken the pipes/sink itself and increase the airflow and I think it will be alright. A beefier PSU wouldn't hurt either, as W870CU users are finding out the 5870 + 920XM under load can shut down their systems with a 120w PSU. Luckily, the power jack is pretty standard and tracking down a beefier PSU is easy.

 

yeah have to say the ability to handle the 920 is somewhat disturbing

the W90 spiked with its gpus, ofc i didnt want viscious to burn his w90 so i dont think we ran any shader complexity occt tests,

i think if the cpu was closer to the fan itself the heat could dissapate better, i enjoy the split northbridge though, undervolting was great for anything along the pipe!

what you think the odds of an msi 5870 are elec? like i dont know if alienwares 4850 was branded but the msi one didnt have things like the he tab, it ran at higher clock too.

im worrying about the gddr5 though, GDDR3 ran hot enough lmao, man do i hope msi improve this, need a review model out!

 

was looking around the RK computers site and theres 2 options for an extra 9-cell, a 7200mah and a 7800mah. Are we better on MSI being cheap and having the machines ship with the smaller capacity ones?

 

Maybe, but it may also depend if you want your battery flush to the laptop and not having it stick out.
I don't like that look + it's harder to stuff it in backpack/laptop bag.

 

It is a spare battery, additional one..
you've got Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell) (7800mAh i thought ..)
(included)

 

Did you read it somewhere? All I've seen is that the included battery is a 9-cell. Nothing about the mAh

 

Hey all, I've been doing some laptop research lately and the GX740 is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm really excited about it, are they still reporting May timeframe for USA release, or has it been moved up??

 

haha well if you've been going by May as an ETA you're less anxious than the rest of us. It was originall mid-late March, now moved to mid-late April or early May

 

Yeah i read it in ebay, on frosty computers there is a choice of spare battery and in the back of the available spare batt. its written
Additional 9 cell battery (7800mAh) (Included) + $90
so its included but you could get add. one if you want ;d gl

 

All G-series shipped with 9cell ....

 

Not all 9-cells are made equal

 

Mine was shipped with 7800mah as default retail and so does other MSI machines ....

The one you see on the websites are spare ones ..

Was just pointing out that all gseries are 9 cell and not whether they are 7200mah or 7800mah

 

Well that's perfect then. I just wanted to check to see which one was defaulty. MSI could theoretically ship with one of their smaller capacity 9-cells and still market it as a 9-cell

 

Well then.. maybe we can just try and believe they are using this time to fine tune the system for optimal cooling and performance??

 

The delay might be due to a parts shortage.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18112/1/

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1596738/component-shortages-wallop-pc-makers

 

That's never good.... just hopefully it doesn't turn into a rush job with corners being cut

 

Nah, don't think so ;] they'd find parts always when there's someone which want to give'em some cash

 

*waves cash in the air*
come out faster damn u!

 

haha. good find phinagle. i'm pretty excited for this machine =)

 

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Can't wait until MSI switches over to the new GE700 chassis.

Spec page and manual are up for the GE700 and the new 17.3" chassis has 2 x HDD bays!

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=2021

 

Delayed to april? Bummer.

 

just hd5870 miss its ;d