New MSI GT72 Dominator-406 owner

Heya folks! I just purchased a new GT72 from XoticPC with the assistance of Pat@Xoticpc (good guy btw) and should hopefully have delivery sometime next week. With that being said I'm new to the forums as well, but I have been lurking a bit before making an account. I didn't see a new guy / welcome thread so here it is.

I got the somewhat standard loadout with upgraded copper cooling, one 128GB SSD and 2x8 RAM sticks. Hopefully XoticPC reads my notes and moves them under the keyboard. I have already purchased 2 more 256GB SSD M.2 drives from Amazon as well as 2 more 8GB RAM sticks to max out to 32GB of RAM and a total of almost 2TB storage, one TB of which is HDD Sata. Currently tossing around the idea of using the single 128GB M.2 drive for OS only and setting up a RAID0 with the twin SSD's and use for steam, origin, and currently stored games. I asked a rep from MSI about stripe size and was told either 128k or 64k stripe size would work for games. Anyone have more input on that topic?

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope to learn some stuff, good and bad, while I make this my new home.

 

I just got mine from UPS today, loving it so far. I went with the 840 evo 1tb ssd and 16gb of memory. The build quality is light years ahead of my old Sager 150em. Your lucky if you get yours next week, I had to wait almost a month on mine, they had to wait on the system from MSI I was told. Didnt list it as being OOS on their website when I placed my order at Xotic.

Strip size can vary based on what you want to do in raid, larger strip sizes are better for larger file transfers from what ive read. Theres lots of articles on the subject if you Google it.

One thing id like to find or if someone could help is a screen calibration profile. The screen looks good but its defiantly on the cool side.

 

I heard that about the screen as well, I guess that's why Xotic offers a screen calibration before it ships. There seems to be some very knowledgeable folks here so finding how to calibrate the screen shouldn't be too difficult. Given how much I have been in touch with the CS Reps none have mentioned that my model is OOS so hopefully I don't have to wait all that long for delivery.

I don't plan on doing many "large transfers" on the raid drives, it's purpose would be faster access to data for gaming. The HDD is for backup's and blah blah blah.

 

I bought my Gt72 406 at fry's. Love the laptop. I has a 256 crucial ssd threw in some g skill ram. Best laptop ever

 

You have the IPS or TN panel?

 

Unless something has changed it should be a TN panel.

 

Only the top two models use IPS, you can of course upgrade to one later.

 

I assume its the TN panel. Viewing angles are good but they dont appear to be as good as a IPS screen. The main thing that bothers me about the screen is the color accuracy, just has too much blue. I turned it down some in the windows screen calibration program but its still not ideal. I have a SP3, Dell 3014 monitor, and a Vizio 70" P 4k tv and they all look better to me.
Speaking of 4k, I tested out 4k on the 406 which is one of the reasons I upgraded to this laptop. I noticed that when I set the output to 1080P@120Hz the text looks strange in windows and unless I have the mouse pointer shadow option enabled the mouse pointer in windows at 1080@120hz and 4k@60hz is corrupted and sometimes a reboot or a log out will fix it. When I do a test to see if the 970m is outputting 4:4;4 it doesnt appear to be at 1080@120hz. At 4k, 3840x2160@60hz there is a definite picture quality loss to my Vizio tv. I have a Gigabyte 980 G1 Gaming card and when i use the same 18gbps cable it doesnt look as bad. I should also add that I get these results from the 406 on all outputs, the hdmi and mini-d outputs. Using Nvidia drivers 347.88. Can anyone else verify the issues im having or does anyone have a 4k tv to test? I will say the 970m plays back 4k videos on youtube very well.

 

Not true, anymore. I bought the $21oo model off of Amazon, and to my surprise I got the IPS panel.

Seems that at least all of the GTX 980M models are now shipping with the 4720HQ and the LG IPS. Other people in the GT72 thread have reported the same.

I can't speak for the 970M models.

My screen starts looking weird at 1080p@72Hz. Seems I lost out in the 'get a screen that can overclock well' lottery.

120Hz is waaay too far to try. Usually 80-90 is the max with a good screen.

 

Noob question: How do you know what panel you have? Do you run a CPU-Z or is there a mark or number on the bezel to look for?

 

Device Manager -> double-click Monitors -> right-click Generic -> Properties -> Details -> find Hardware IDs

The IPS will say MONITOR\LGD0469.

Sounds like you have the TN, but won't hurt to check.

 

I found this, give it a shot. Bonus points for being a free site.
http://displaycalibration.com/

 

Cool, thanks, ill see what i can do later with it.

 

Ok I found the color profile that i noticed while reading a review of the GT72. I will link it below. Its under the display section of the review called ICC File (X-Rite i1Pro 2). If anyone needs help on how to activate it just follow the steps in the second link for icc profiles. I activated the one provided in the review at notebookcheck.net and wow, MUCH better, the display now looks normal.


http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GT72-Notebook-Review.125916.0.html

https://pcmonitors.info/articles/using-icc-profiles-in-windows/

 

Thanks for the link and the update. I'll be sure to check it out once my laptop gets delivered.

 

Any updates on your laptop?

 

Last I spoke with Pat@Xoticpc was on Thursday saying they were getting the parts together. I'm assuming they don't work weekends and will start on Monday. I already sent him an email asking for a status update haha. I'm very impatient with ordering things, suppose I'm lucky they don't have an iOS app because I would refresh that every 30 minutes like I do with Amazon.

 

Looks like they were out of stock on mine as well. Xotic says they had to order more base models and will let me know when my build starts... Con sarn it!

 

I'm going to bet that you end up with the IPS panel. If you were given one they had laying around, it would've likely been an older chassis with the TN attached.

You would've saved a ton of time just ordering the machine from Amazon, when you bought the SSDs.

 

I may have saved time. But it would have been more work to move the RAM to the secondary location and I had the extra cooling installed on it also. Doubt I could have gotten those extras ordering from Amazon. I'm not in a rush and have no immediate NEED for it, but I sure can't wait to play with my new toy.

 

I didnt get an IPS panel on mine and they had to order it, i dont think they are available on the 406 models, possibly due to lower base cost compared to the pro models.

 

Looking at reviews for this particular model I believe sk11Venge is right. TN panel helps keep it below $2000.

 

Oh I forgot to add something about the SSD performance when you have a msata drive in the 406. Maybe its like this in other laptops as well, but the max read/write speed is capped at about 260mb/sec. I am kinda disappointed with that since i got the 850 Evo which is capable of over 500mb/sec but i guess im still getting the other benefits of the drive. Im to the point where i dont even want mechanical drives anymore, they arent silent like ssd's, take more power i think, run hotter, and may not last as long. I think a laptop will run cooler without a mechanical drive in it as well. My 406 idles in the low 30c range, right now im seeing 29c for gpu and 31c for cpu with light loads. Pretty impressive i think. The fans in the 406 are quiet too.

 

I was watching an unboxing and review on youtube earlier, complete with FLIR camera and decibel meter. I was pretty darn impressed when the MSI went from off to desktop ready on a cold boot in 9 seconds with the SSD. I've never used SSD's before but then again the laptop I have currently in use is 8 years old, so there's that.

 

SSDs make a huge difference not only in boot, but overall use. You might feel it is fast but not that much, but once you return to older machines, the reality will hit you.

I went SSDs several years ago, and I just can't go back. It doesn't matter if I have to buy a small size SSD, I just need the speed to not get frustrated haha

 

That sounds like the comparison of flying first class to coach. Once you've had the best you just can't go back.

 

I'm going to bet that you end up with the IPS panel. If you were given one they had laying around, it would've likely been an older chassis with the TN attached.

I doubt MSI is sending out anything but the updated SKU with IPS anymore, so your delay may be a blessing in disguise.

Time wise you were probably better off buying from Amazon.

 

If I remember right, you should be getting the computer pretty soon here now that it shipped out. I'm curious to see how everything is.