Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

LOL i have a building like that at my school but now I don't take classes in that building. In that situation ur just kinda SOL

 

Still waiting on Fullerton...

 

Just buy the thing dookie, you're going somewhere for school regardless

 

dookie still hasnt bought it?
LOL.
Neither have I...
I'm saving up for something else... in the meantime i'm playing on my m1530 with low settings and stuttering...

 

Does that really surprise you?

 

Should be more like me. If you guys look back two months on this thread you'd see that I PREORDERED it.

 

i have a quick question guys. Did your gx640s come with 7200mah or 7800mah batteries?

 

7800mah is the default

 

7800 mah.

As is typical

 

Is the 6300 Intel wifi card worth 45 dollars? What about a thermal paste upgrade along with mirror finish(lapping I assume) for 75? I am wondering if these upgrades are worth it along with the keyboard upgrade at RK Computers. Also, if 7800 is default, why does RK have the 7200 one as default?

 

Hi guys, just got my GX640 in the mail on monday.

I did some tests, and one of the things that caught my eye as a first time laptop buyer was the heat. I figured that any kind of notebook setup would be prone to heat issues, but I wasn't really sure of the extent. The GX640 reviews that I read said heat was average as far as gaming laptops go.

Now, my own personal temperature data scares the crap out of me.

I fired up bad company two with a hardware monitor in the background and ran it on high with 4x Anti-Aliasing, and 16x AAF. After about an hour and a half of gaming the max temperature values were:

CPU Core 1: 87 Celsius
CPU Core 2: 85 Celsius
GPU Core: 96 Celsius

That's something I never expected, considering that my desktop CPU temps hover at about 57 celsius max and GPU temps top out at 76 celsius.

Now I understand notebooks run hot, but are these temps normal? Looking around I have found a lot of evidence to suggest that they are.

The next question i have is, for those who have had gaming notebooks before, does this heat significantly affect reliability? How long does it take before the heat that these computers generate significantly damages the hardware and causes the computer to fail?

As a student, I need this thing to be fairly reliable and last me through the year as a work computer. It would be a major issue to have to RMA this thing mid semester. If I weren't taking it with me to college, I'd just be happy with the warranty (which is an excellent warranty), but I need to know how long these things last before going poof.

 

Those temps are normal for the GX640. Unfortunately, it's pretty much impossible to say what kind of lifetime you can expect, because there is a lack of data on the issue. After all, the GX640 is a new model and no one has had it for very long yet.

 

Well it's good to know these temperatures are not unusual for this model.

I'm assuming there have been other models in the past that have run as hot with lifespan data available? How long have some of the notebooks you've owned in the past lasted? Have there been significant hardware issues?

I'm staring down the 15 day satisfaction period and have until the 24th to get this thing on its way back if Iwant to get a refund. I've considered trying to find a cooler rig, but have had little luck as far as 15-16" laptops go. In fact, most of the gaming notebooks i have examined run extremely hot. The only notable exception i seem to be able to find is the alienware mx11, which I'm unfortunately just not interested in.

If I can find significant evidence that this isn't going to be an enormous issue, I'll be fine. Otherwise it may be time to throw the towel in and set aside my gaming in favor of more important concerns.

I appreciate the ultra quick reply, by the way.

 

I haven't owned many notebooks, but either way a single person's experience with heat isn't going to be particularly meaningful.

There's a lot of randomness in a process like laptop failure, so if you want a good picture of the situation you'd have to see a survey of a relatively large number of people.

 

Fair enough. Do you know of any models that get particularly good temperatures under load? I'm fairly much open to anything.

 

The Sager models are probably the best in that regard.

 

Yep, the sagers have great cooling, only prob is they're huge, heavy, and will give you <1 hour of battery life

the GX640 has a 3 year warranty so if the temps ever cause ur machine to crap out it's on them to replace it

 

He has already said this, though:

 

My older laptop is an ASUS M51Ta. It came with an MR 3650. I've been gaming on it for two years before I bought the GX640. Temps of 96C was a normal occurrence. And on one really hot day it hit 106C (ambient temp of 38C), but it never throttled down nor did it do an emergency shutdown. It can still run Company of Heroes at 1280x800 high-medium settings, getting 30-35fps.

I notice I pretty much get the same temps with the GX640 (but with higher settings, of course). At 36C ambient, I have hit as high 97C. With the air-conditioning turned on, I average around 93C. I do get better idle temps with the GX640. With the ASUS, my CPU would idle at 66-70C and the GPU at around 72-74C (vs GX640's CPU 55C, GPU 68C no air-conditioning).

 

Well, I must say with just one post, imanol has put most of my concern to rest. Out of curiosity, how heavily did you game on that machine during those two years? I do enjoy gaming but I consider myself a bit of a weekend warrior. I'm mostly a casual gamer and I don't really think I'll be playing every day or even every other day. It is reassuring to me to see that your machine lasted for two years and maintained its performance for the most part, even while running that hot. I'm aware that any machine can fail for any reason, but I have had concern about the temperatures accelerating this or leading to a premature death.

By the way to the other two posters, thanks for your responses as well. Examining the sagers, if I were to return this I would probably buy an 8690 because of the phenomenal cooling. I am hesitant to return this notebook if I can find evidence that the heat wouldn't necessarily cause premature failure, though. I absolutely love the horsepower this thing packs for its size, I think the display is decent quality and I'm actually very satisfied overall with it. There's no way that the 8690 would pack the same power for the price while looking as good.

 

Go get HWINFO32 and check all 3 gpu probes. 96 on MemIO isn't too bad. Basically, you wanna be under 90 for the other 2 probes, and under 100 under MemIO. 110 MemIO is the shutoff I think. MemIO will be pretty high. CPU on the other hand is kind of high, and you can't undervolt (too bad).

 

I usually game maybe 2-3 nights during weekdays at maybe 1-1.5 hours, though, most of that is set on PAUSE thanks to my 3-year old. On weekends, I manage to put in maybe 10 hours total gaming. The most demanding game I've played was maybe Dragon Age. Got really hot then. But then again, even just playing EU3 was enough to raise my temps to 95C.

 

looking at 86 for displayIO, 92 for memIO and 93 for the shader on HWINFO32. CPU is the same on both hwmonitors, 85 max.

 

Those temperatures seems to be normal under stock thermal paste and without the copper shim mod. My GPU temp never gone up beyond 87c and my cpu stayed below 70 under load. Those temperature were recorded using HWINFO32 and with AC5. I will update my temp after I do the copper shim mod.

 

Spend Friday thru sunday at a rocking 30 person lan with this as my main rig. Worked flawlessly. Played everything from BC2, Crysis, Blur, split second, TF2, LFD2 and much more. Temps never rose over 77c on the GPU all weekend. Was very pleased with the GX.

Also everyone was jealous i didnt have to cart around a full desktop machine and still play everything without issues. Even the alienware guys were looking at it.

 

Haha. Pimp that GX640!

 

Hey guys, the GX64 caught my eye recently so I went on xoticpc to check it and according to them there is a new model pending. I tried searching this thread but I couldn't find any clearcut expected release dates. Does anyone know when the new model is being planned to release? I have to order a new laptop by August so I'm wondering if it's worth waiting. Or can I preorder the new model anywhere?

 

The xotic pc site says eta mid july...

 

Just checked it out, sweet thanks. Earlier today it was only saying "pending". That means that now I'll have another alternative to choose from. So far that seems like more of a curse than a blessing.

 

BTW, has anyone seen rk computers benchmarks? They have a gx640 with 720m getting up to 800 on the 5850 and getting 9000 on vantage with really good temps. I wonder if he did anything to the heatsink.

 

thats what mine does, but with out any heat issues

 

I tried running MSI's new online Futuremark tool on my MSI GX640, and found to my surprise that my GX640 only got 7/10 while their official rating is 10/10. Granted, I was expecting it to be completely useless before I ran it, but not that bad.

It's possible I did something wrong, but it's more likely that they're just making it up.

 

Hello

I'm new to the MSI forums, and an almost certain in getting the GX640-260US. I am very interested in this laptop because it is the lightest, has the best battery life for the performance, and pretty cheap. I'm not buying it for gaming, but I am buying it for the performance.

Here are my specs, and I will probably order it within a month, before its released:

MSI GX640-260US - PRE ORDER

- 15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050)
- - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU FREE w/ CPU Upgrade
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5850 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 4,096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066MHzDual Channel Memory
- Standard Finish
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software (If choosing a 2nd HDD in the Optical Drive Bay no Optical Disk Drive will be included)
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)

It comes to $1487 CAD + tax.

I just have a question:

I pretty much need the performance because I will be running demanding programs like photoshop cs5 and Automax 3DS, so I think the quad core is the way to go. I am just wondering about the battery usage. If I run the the computer on low power settings, will the i7 use less battery power because of the lower clock? I don't really know much about the new processors, so any help would be great.

I am looking to get a portable laptop for college (engineering) to replace my huge qosmio. Does anyone have any pictures of the power brick next to anything to scale it? that would be great, because it is one of the main things I am worried about.

Any other advice would be great, especially places to buy this laptop in Canada.

Thanks!

 

Where are you buying it from, and how much does the i7-720QM upgrade cost?

The i7-720QM will likely give you lower battery life than the i5-430M, since what I've read suggests it's more power-hungry both at idle and under load. You'll still get pretty good battery life as long as you underclock the GPU nicely, though.

The two main issues with the GX640 are the keyboard and heat, so make sure you're happy with them as they are before you buy it. The extent of these problems does tend to be exaggerated, but they're important considerations. You should read up on them to make sure they will be fine.

 

Can anyone with the GX640 tell me how solid the case feels compared to the envy or macbook? The outside case is made of aluminum, correct? Is it really as thin as I've seen, about the same as the envy 15? Anyone been able to compare the screen quality to an envy?

Has anyone gotten one with a hard drive in the optical drive bay? How's that work? Can you raid the drives? Has anyone tried a SSD/HD combination? Sorry if its come up before, 150 pages is a lot to go through.

 

The upgrade costs almost $300. I dont know if its worth it, but I do want quad core to run cpu intensive tasks.

And could anyone take some pictures of the power brick next to an object to scale, such as a pop can? That would help me out a lot because I am worried about 2 things:

1.Battery life
2.portability

Has anyone used this as an every day on the go laptop? If this is not a good laptop to take on the go, could anyone recommend me the most powerful lightweight laptop?

Thanks!

 

I take this thing to class everyday with the power brick because I'm normally out all day with my laptop on nearly all the time.

The power brick is pretty big but not a huge deal. With an 820qm I get around 2hrs -> 2hrs15mins so you can expect that with a 720qm.

 

Is there a way to underclock the cpu and/or GPU when on battery power? if so does it save a lot of power?

Thanks!

 

That's quite a high price. The i7-720QM's retail price is ~$350, so you're only getting $50 back for the i5-430M that comes stock with the system - it's worth at least $150, I'd say.

Even though it has four cores, the i7-720QM is only around 30% faster than the i5-430M, and that's in tasks that make good use of all four cores. On two cores they're basically equal, although the i7-720QM's single-core boost is better at 2.8GHz vs 2.53GHz.

On the whole, the $300 isn't worth it. If you really want the i7-720QM, you should get the barebones version, e.g. Xotic's 1656-ID4, or buy the stock GX640 and upgrade the CPU yourself. To me, the upgrade is worth ~$150, and then it's still a tradeoff because you're sacrificing battery life.

 

Intel's CPUs will automatically downclock themselves when idling. My i5-430M runs at around 1.2GHz most of the time when browsing the web and the like.

As for the GPU, I downclock mine to 100/150 whenever I'm not gaming. The way many of us do it is described here.

 

Is there a guide for undervolting the CPU and the GPU?

 

I think you can only undervolt the GPU by changing the VBIOS. No idea about the CPU, though.

 

Quick question, I'm looking at the bare bones vesion this laptop, the MSI-1656-ID4.

Is there anything different besides the warrenty and outward color / apperance of the case?

I'm looking at either i5 430M and 540M options. Would there be anything I need to look out for if upgrading to a quad i7 down the line? While there's a deal on i7 720QM, it's rather low on brute horsepower to each core.

I'd like to future proof, but there doesn't seem to be enough justification for that chip yet, and it'll be outdated when there finally is. In 2 years time would I be able to swap in a 840QM or 940XM? (or any higher i7's as long as they remain like their older chips).

Let me know if my thinking is false.

 

These are the upgarde options for the GX 649

-Intel® Core™ i5-450M, 2.4-2.67GHz, (3MB L3 cache) - Standard
-Intel® Core™ i5-520M, 2.4-2.93GHz, (3MB L3 cache) ( + 259 )
- Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) ( + 283 )
-Intel® Core™ i5-540M, 2.53-3.06GHz, (3MB L3 cache) ( + 299 )
-Intel® Core™ i7-620M, 2.66-3.33GHz, (4MB L3 cache) ( + 379 )

and these are the upgrades for the Force:

-Intel® Core™ i5-430M, 2.26-2.53GHz, (3MB L3 cache) -
Intel® Core™ i5-520M, 2.4-2.93GHz, (3MB L3 cache) ( + 95 )
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Special! ( + 119 )
Intel® Core™ i5-540M, 2.53-3.06GHz, (3MB L3 cache) ( + 145 )
Intel® Core™ i7-620M, 2.66-3.33GHz, (4MB L3 cache) ( + 225 )
Intel® Core™ i7-740QM, 1.73-2.93GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache)- ( + 236 )
-Intel® Core™ i7-840QM, 1.86-3.2GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)- ( + 465 )
- Intel® Core™ i7-940XM Extreme, 2.13-3.33GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)- ( + 990 )

What is the better way to go?

 

Crap, both the rear rubber feat on the bottom of my GX640 came off.

Luckyly I found them both on the desk i was using.

Any recommendation on what glue to use to make sure they dont come back again?

 

Sorry, were your referencing my post? If so, I know that.

My question is in a year or two, could I replace a i5 with a faster i7? Everything I've read leads me to believe thats true. Same socket, and both socket chipsets allow it, correct? Anything I need to be weary of besides integrated GFX not supported?

just wanted to check as this forum seems to have the most knowledgable ppl around.

And I would be getting the GX640, but I need a laptop immediatly, and can't wait till mid July.

:/

 

Hot glue gun will do the trick.

 

You PM'd me this question, but I might as well answer it here. I think I'll be able to answer tornbacchus' question as well. The next bunch of Intel CPUs will be Sandy Bridge, which will use a different socket to the current i5s and i7s, so you won't be able to upgrade to those. Prices do fall over time, though, so there is still an advantage to upgrading later.

Looking at the upgrade prices for the Force 1656, they're definitely a lot better than the GX640. Nonetheless, you could still probably do it cheaper yourself once you factor in some money from selling the i5-430M. On the whole, I'd say the upgrade prices for the dual-cores are still too high; the i5-520M is only ~5% faster, the i5-540M is ~10% faster, and the i7-620M is ~20% faster. These do have the advantage of an additional ~10% single-core boost, though, as compared to the i5-430M which has the same 266MHz Turbo Boost on both one core and two; they also have the new AES instructions, which would justify the additional cost if you do a lot of encryption. The i7-720QM, on the other hand, performs roughly equally to the i5-430M in two-thread tasks, roughly equally to the i5-520M in one-thread tasks, and roughly equally to the i7-620M in tasks that use 4/8 threads.

With those prices, my recommendation is to pick the i5-430M or the i7-720QM. In particular, if you're going to be doing video encoding or the like, the i7-720QM is definitely a better choice. It will also have a good advantage for some games, like GTA IV, that actually do use four cores. I guess that in future more games will make decent use of the i7-720QM, but it's still only going to be a ~20% advantage. On the other hand, the trade-off is that it will only perform equally to the i5-430M for anything that can only use two cores, and it's more power-hungry as well.

One thing with the 1656-ID4 is that the stock battery is only a 6-cell. If battery life is a concern, you might want to pay $120 for the spare 9-cell upgrade. It depends on the specs of the battery (cell counts alone don't mean that much), but most of the time the individual cells will be the same and so I'd expect the 6-cell to have roughly 2/3 of the battery life of the 9-cell.



I'd say the stock GX640-260US is still better value on the whole, considering the warranty, the bigger stock HDD, the 9-cell battery, and the stock i5-450M. If you're willing to wait for it, it seems like a better choice. If you really think you'll make good use of the i7-720QM, I'd say the $119 upgrade is the only thing going for the 1656-ID4, and also the only CPU upgrade worth considering there, because the rest are still overpriced.

 

It seems the gx640-260us is in stock at rkcomputers. Does that mean its going to be back in stock soon for the other places?

 

Nice observation. In that case, I'd recommend going with the 260US.