Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

Once and for all: does it void the warranty to put thermal paste myself?

 

No. You can do it and keep the warranty.

 

Sigh another question that has been answered at least a dozen times...

You can open your rig up and change thermal paste and all that and still be under warranty, assuming you dont screw something up and do it in a "professional" manner. So basically if your thermal paste job kills something its not warranted. If something else causes it they dont care.

 

Ok! Thanks! Sorry not to have search more hehe..

 

Nobody knows why ?

 

I5 430m vs i5 450m (Clubic.com)

...but I don't know where these consumptions came from :/

any screens?

 

I found the GX640 on avadirect.com for $1064 here - GAMING NOTEBOOK (Pre-Order) MSI GX640-260US Core™ i7 Gaming Series Notebook, 15.4" WSXGA+ Glossy LCD, ATI® Radeon™ HD 5850 1GB Graphics : AVADirect Custom Computer Configuration

So far, that's the lowest price I've found. Is avadirect a safe site to buy from?

 

Here is a screenshot of cpu-z and HWMonitor

If you could make the same to see if there is a differance between the 2 CPU it would be nice.

 

AND MY AXE

 

Did you change anything in Bios ?
Do you have Hyperthreading enabled ?

Appart of the stepping and the revision (which cannot be changed) every thing looks the same ...

 

Everything stock except for my graphics card, which is OC'd.

 

Dakins, how far did You go with the GPU OCing?

 

Have to say I feel like a kid around Xmas time again, just can't WAIT for this gx740 to hurry up and arrive ;D

 

But even with a revision the difference in idle shouldn't be so big... I mean it's more than a half ...

and Marecki_clf did you try 100/100 @0.8v ? It's the tension I have and so far it seems good.

 

745/1000 but when I took the screenshot it was at 405/1000. I'm not trying to break a world record, just squeezing a few extra frames per second out of the GPU so I can play at 1080p. I could technically push it to 800 without any issue.

 

What are a chances to burn the card after OC?

I am just curious if the problems below are the results of OC...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6313055-post1351.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6319721-post1368.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6335070-post1400.html

 

Hey guys!

I just recently ordered a Gx640 from Rk Computers with the custom heat sink + thermal paste and it should be coming in tomorrow or sometime soon. I've been following this thread for a while now, but it's been a while and I really don't want to start rereading all 180+ pages. Would anyone be nice enough to give me a run down of what I should do once I get my new lappy?

Thanks!

 

Which is the model with the custom heat sink + thermal paste ... do yo have a link for this?

Cheers
Chumby

 

Not a whole lot you need to do if you don't want to reformt your HD. I did the following when I got mine last week

1) Removed what minimal bloatware there was (namely Norton + McAffee)

2) Flashed the VBIOS to the newest version

3) Updated the video drivers to the latest from ATI/AMD's driver page

4) Downloaded GPU-Z, CPU-Z, HWInfo, and AMD GPU Clock Tool to check settings, monitor temps, etc...

5) Updated (rather installed) the synaptics touchpad driver (download from MSI's GX640 page or the synaptic's page) to get all the settings for the touchpad enabled.

6) I still want to make a win7 install disc too.

One other thing . . .

I've noticed that in some games I can't access the CONSOLE (i.e. fallout3) anymore. It turns out, there is a conflict between Microsoft's eHome Infrared device drivers, which are routinely looking for the "~" key to be pressed for some reason. Well, the driver's access to the "~" (tilde) key blocks other apps from accessing it properly.

Now, the solution is to disable the ehome drivers. However, Win7 likes the reinstall these drivers everytime you reboot, which is really annoying. The problem is compounded on the GX640, because Win7 Home Premium does not allow you to access the group + local policies, which would otherwise let you turn off the automatic driver install process.

The solution I found that works, documented here, is to basically replace the eHome driver using the update driver button in device manager and manually select the generic HID Compliant Device driver. It seems to be working so far now.

*** Note, in the link above, the guy's problem was with his keyboard. The infrared device that was causing me issues was in the device manager under the "human interface" tree

Anyway, 'nuff said . . . +1 for in-game consoles!

 

PLAY SOME VIDEO GAMES

 

MSI GX640-260US 15.4" WSXGA+ Intel® Arrandale Core™ i5 Gaming Notebook 9S7-165611-260
I added the Diamond thermall and the mirror polished CPU/GPU heatsink since some of the earlier posts seemed to suggest it.



And thanks a bunch peekaboom! I'll be sure to clean up and update everything!

Dakins, you can be sure i'll be gaming the next week or so away xP


But on another note, I remember there being posts about turning off some ATI thing. Any idea what that was all about and if it's still recommended on the GX640-260US?

 

Are you having issues recovering from sleep while on the battery? If not dont worry.

 

I'll see once my laptop gets here, but thanks!

 

Well my laptop came in today (after I had to chase down a UPS truck that delivered the wrong package to me) and everything seems to be running fine. I've updated everything (vBIOS, drivers, ect).

Thanks for everything!

 

Anyone have any tips or advice on how to remove the gawd-awful stickers on the palm rest? Peeling them back leaves about 90% of the sticky-stuff on the laptop instead of in the sticker.

I swear they do this intentionally to encourage you to leave them on!

 

I use some methylated spirits (AKA Denatured alcohol) to clean what's left after you take the sticker off.

 

Thanks for suggesting. I take it didn't mess up the finish on the metal or anything then?

 

Well I used it on my GT627 (same chassis right?). And there are no marks at all.

But I guess even a damp cloth could do the job.

 

do you guys know where i can buy mirror polished CPU/GPU heatsink for gx640 mentioned several posts earlier

 

RKComputers is the only place i know what offers it as a custom option

 

There are none available separately at the moment...

Cheers
Chumby

 

Ah man, XoticPC still hasn't gotten their shipment in yet. It said mid-July, then it turned into late-July. Ordered the 12th, the wait is absolutely killing me.

 

A damp cloth won't do anything. The residue is non-polar, and water is polar. The residue won't dissolve in the water.

I doubt it would be a good idea to use on a computer, but oil of any kind on a cloth would do a good job of wiping away the sticky residue.

OT: Ordered mine from NCIX. Should be available for pickup sometime soon! Hopefully it's before Tuesday.... I'm only going to be near that city for 3 days.

 

Well I used rubbing alcohol + some random cloth I found in my bathroom to remove the sticker residue. It seems to have worked and it didnt damage anything.

 

i ordered the mirror polished upgrade...i don't really think it did much. i'm hitting 90 degrees C a lot when i play battlefield bc 2, according to ati ccc (temps are in the overdrive tab). I alt tab and switch between bc2 and ati ccc, idk if this affects the temp. btw my ambient temp is 77 degrees F.

 

Seriously--how can one confirm that they TRULY did give you a "mirror polish", or even "thermal compound upgrade" ?

 

that is true...because i configured my gx640, just a few upgrades, from a retailer so they put a warranty sticker on the bottom panel.

 

Really? Mine's idling at 55 and gaming at around 77-80 on Crysis and Mass Effect 2. o.o i got the IC Diamond + the CPU/GPU upgrades though.

 

wat do u use to check your temps? maybe it's my ambient temp? idk but i got the same upgrades you did.

 

As Pippi Longstocking might say, "What I meantersay"...is that how can you really know that they used anything but stock paste, cuz since you're buying it without ever looking inside, what do you have it to compare to? Obviously you wouldnt compare it to our peers on the forum, cuz no two pieces of hardware are identical, and noone lives in the same conditions/temps. So besides how to verify that they actually put anything in, how can you truly tell if those 35dollar upgrades really do anything anyway? ..I know, I'm a skeptic. But seriously, how do you verify paste first of all, since they're all grey colored. And how do you verify mirror finish--are you gonna peel off the cpu and peek underneath?

 

Any company with a good reputation will deliver what your paying for. I can confirm that anyone who ordered the mirror polish or the thermal compound upgrade has received it. Any product or service we offer is always delivered.

We would not have the good reputation and reviews that we do by offering products and services and not delivering them.

 

But how does one verify that there's that stuff on there? Will there be a warrantyvoid sticker slapped on, or no?

 

I'm looking at it on GPU-Z o.o perhaps it might have to do with the fact that my air conditioning's keeping my room at near a freezing temp xD

 

If you are so skeptical then why dont you give a try yourself and do the updates.


P.S : I have been seeing you here on the forums for such a long time, Anybody would have decided on a laptop by now, did ya?

 

It's called trust.

If you don't trust your reseller, then as mentioned, the ONLY way to be sure is to do the upgrade yourself.

You do raise a good point though, which is that you can't really compare temps very easily, since everyone has different living conditions (temperatures) and the hardware randomly seems to vary in its heat levels a fair amount anyway.

Kinda raises the question whether obsessing about paste's and thermal comounds is even warranted. Strikes me that if you're worried about it or want better cooling, it's because you want to over clock, in which case if your warranty is potentially voided, you might as well save some money and apply new paste and such yourself (or do the copper shim fix, etc..).

 

BTW . . . does anyone know what the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" does?

EDIT: Also, what about the "System control manager"

 

THe system control manager is simply the msi program giving you the small pictures you get when using the led panel... It also controls the different power setting obtained by clicking on the battery button and so on...

I am also interested to know what the Intel rapid storage technology does, though!

 

It is simply a Firmware based RAID, nothing more nothing less.

 

Doesn't really do anything in the GX640 then unless you install a 2nd HDD in the optical bay?

 

Precisely!!