MSI GS70 Stealth Pro Questions

Karnee

Karnee

Karnee

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1. Is it possible to upgrade the amount of RAM the laptop can carry? I read that it can support 32GB of Ram. Not that I will ever need that amount, but I would like to know if it's possible.

2. Is it a bad thing not to have an Optical Drive? Does the rest of the Laptop make up for this?

3. Do you have cons about this Laptop?
 
I have the GS60 860m version.

1) Yes, but substantial disassembly is required. MSI have reportedly said that they will honour warranty, but I wouldn't want to be the first to try it!

2) Not a problem at all. When did you last use a DVD/CD ? If you do get a USB external one. Or share the drive from a desktop.

3) Cons, not many. The biggest one is win8.1 coming from win7 it sucks the big chewy. It is truely horrible. I'm not sure how easy it is to reinstall win7 but I know people have tried.

Feels pretty well made. Screen has some flex, but then it is only about 3mm thick !

It is also pretty speedy. Exporting 20 images from lightroom it was about 3 seconds slower than my ssd/high end i5, 16GB ram desktop.

Summary - great laptop.
 
Karnee said:
1. Is it possible to upgrade the amount of RAM the laptop can carry? I read that it can support 32GB of Ram. Not that I will ever need that amount, but I would like to know if it's possible.

2. Is it a bad thing not to have an Optical Drive? Does the rest of the Laptop make up for this?

3. Do you have cons about this Laptop?
Click to expand...

1) I'm 99% sure that the RAM is extendable, I've had the underside of my GS70 off as I added an extra SSD to mine so I could RAID 0 but from memory I think their is 2 x memory slots so if you wanted to upgrade to 32GB, it would have to be 2 x 16GB sticks. If I am incorrect then please feel free to say so.

2) I've never needed to use a CD since I purchased my Stealth Pro as I either download off the net or install Windows via the USB stick (downgraded to 7), I've owned mine for nearly 2 months now. Not only that, but coming to think of it I think I only used the optical drive once or twice in 2 years with my last rig.

3) The only main gripe I can think of is that the aluminum can be a bit of a finger print magnet, especially the outer lid so therefore requires cleaning now and then. Another minor niggly gripe is that MSI could have put some more thought into the touch pad during the planning states (built as one pad for the scroll & buttons).

Edit - the biggest software gripe as already mentioned is that it comes shipped with Windows 8.1, I tried my best to get used to it but couldn't so I wiped all the drives & stuck Windows 7 on it.

I can also echo that it's a fantastic laptop and never skips a beat.

Liam
 
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I've got the previous version of the GS70 Stealth and if the RAM slots are in the same position on the new one which I imagine they would be then you need to strip the whole MB out of the case and disconnect a load of very small fragile ribbon connectors to do so, I took the back off mine with a view to adding some more RAM took one look at what I'd have to do to my brand new £1+k laptop and just put the back back on.
 
Another question for you guys.

I've been looking at the GIGABYTE P35W v2-CF2 UltraForce Gamer and comparing the spec.

Both are worth £1400, but it seems like I get more from the Gigabyte than the MSI?

Eg, Graphics and SSD.

Am I missing something?
 
Nope, not missing anything. The gigabyte is very good for the price. It has the same 4710 processor, same 16gb ram, and a GTX 870m with 6 Gb instead of 3Gb memory. It also has an optical drive.

The MSI is 300 grams lighter, and has a full aluminium/Mg-Li chassis. This gives it a premium feeling. The gigabyte is an aluminium chassis but still has some plastic around the screen and (i think keys).

Its ultimately your choice! I simply preferred the look of the MSI, and the social team is very good at engaging the public, so that helped too! (Blame Arjibear on facebook!)The steel series keyboard is also VERY good! Excellent travel, no flex, great lights and macro settings!

Whatever you choose, you wont be disappointed!
 
I cant comment on the gigabyte, as i havent had one. But the GS60 gets HOT! the GPU hits a max of around 93C i believe. with the 860m hitting around 80C. This is absolutely fine on a desk, as the keyboard only gets warm, not too hot to touch, hence its lower in the gs60 and gs70 than usually to help heat dissipation! Just leave it a few minutes after gaming before you pick it up.

You want a cool running laptop, buy a big full size one. you want portable gaming, its the price you pay for a 1.9kg laptop!
 
Hodders said:
tom_e how did you get win7 on it ?

Has it been reliable ?
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I changed the boot configuration in the BIOS from UEFI to Legacy as Windows 7 does not recognize the newer UEFI. I then ran the Windows 7 setup from a USB stick and deleted all of the partitions on both drives (including all of the recovery ones as it causes all sorts of problems with Windows 7, I also backed up all of the partitions prior to this too) and created them all again from scratch.

Once that was out of the way I managed to install Windows 7 without a problem but make sure that their is absolutely no data on the spare 1TB drive as well because as it's SATA, it will cause a continuous CHKDSK upon boot up, or alternatively you can wait to create the partition on the spare 1TB drive after installing windows. The only thing you need to make sure afterwards is that you download all of the relevant drivers & software that is compatible for 7.

I've been running Windows 7 on my GS70 Stealth Pro for over a month now without any issues, and gaming is absolutely spot on as well.

Liam
 
I've installed more windows systems than I've had hot dinners. But I've never done a laptop that has a integrated and gaming GPU.

How did you get that set up ?

Also did you downgrade thw in8.1 install or use a fresh win7 licence ?

Thanks for teh help BTW. Win8.1 is driving me nuts....
 
Thanks for the info. I'm saving up for a gs70 and just trying to get a better understanding of what I am buying that's all.

Its the size mainly that attracted me in the first place


EviL Ras said:
I cant comment on the gigabyte, as i havent had one. But the GS60 gets HOT! the GPU hits a max of around 93C i believe. with the 860m hitting around 80C. This is absolutely fine on a desk, as the keyboard only gets warm, not too hot to touch, hence its lower in the gs60 and gs70 than usually to help heat dissipation! Just leave it a few minutes after gaming before you pick it up.

You want a cool running laptop, buy a big full size one. you want portable gaming, its the price you pay for a 1.9kg laptop!
Click to expand...
 
Hodders said:
I've installed more windows systems than I've had hot dinners. But I've never done a laptop that has a integrated and gaming GPU.

How did you get that set up ?

Also did you downgrade thw in8.1 install or use a fresh win7 licence ?

Thanks for teh help BTW. Win8.1 is driving me nuts....
Click to expand...

No worries mate :)

I just used my existing fresh Windows 7 licence after I completely wiped all of the partitions on all drives and went on from there, but from memory getting the laptop to recognize my Kingston 8GB USB 3 drive which had the Windows setup on was a right PITA though and took me hours to get around it as the Windows 7 setup initially does not recognize USB 3 devices and all of the USB ports on the GS70 are USB 3 too.

I tried many times to implement the USB 3 .inf drivers onto the USB stick and a few other things but I simply couldn't get it to work, a lot of it was down to lots of mounting and commands via ImageX but sadly at the time I didn't have the patience nor the time too. In the end I found out via another forum that simply changing the Legacy USB 3 setting to OFF via the BIOS seemed to do the trick just like that! (I think it downgrades all the USB ports from to USB 2.0) After Windows had finished installing I just switched the Legacy USB 3 setting back to ON via the BIOs.

With regards to the graphics drivers, I just downloaded the newest ones directly from the nvidia website and they installed without a problem :)

I know what you mean about Windows 8.1 as well, despite trying for 2-3 weeks to get used to it I just couldn't and I even tried a couple of Windows 7 interfaces i.e. StartIsBack but it still didn't feel the same.

Liam
 
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