My MSi GT60-2PC Dominator. 2 months on.

FinglisHobbit

FinglisHobbit

FinglisHobbit

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Lincolnshire
Just thought I would give you guys an update on how I feel about the laptop. Im no reviewer and Im not great at putting such things together. But heres my opinion.


Screen - 1080p goodness, Great colours, no backlight issues or anything. I have a 2440p desktop monitor so initially the stepdown was a shock. But its proving great for gaming on my travels.

Keyboard - Brilliant. The lights make it look good, but the actual keys FEEL good. Ive typed on quite a few laptop keyboards in my time and this one is the best. It doesn't flex anywhere and all the keys are very responsive.

Performance - It has an 870m and and i7 processor, its performance has been fantastic for every game Ive thrown at it. When I get home from my travels Ill test it out via HDMI on my TV and see how it performs. Ive ran games like Skyrim, Tomb Raider, Dishonored, Payday2, Dota2, Rust, Borderlands 2, Farcry 3, Assassins creed 4 and Dragonage. All smooth with high details :)

Weight - Heavy. Not gonna lie its quite heavy. However its not an issue for me, it has been fine in my backpack and when its on a desk its very sturdy and feels solid.

Aesthetics. - Not the prettiest or sleekest, but it definitely looks like a gaming laptop and its by no means ugly. I think some alternatives look a bit nicer but this is definitely not something to put me off.

Build quality. - Very pleased with it. The hinge on the screen is firm and keeps the screen in place, no wobble or flex in the screen. The aluminium palm rest is nice but these metal areas are a major fingerprint/grease magnet.

Cooling - Seems fine. The laptop runs silently for my day to day stuff (like typing this now). When gaming for long periods the fan will ramp up and its louder, however its still not distracting. There is some kinda Turbofan button on it. This makes the system sound like a jet taking off. I turned this on for the first time when I was mortal drunk and hadn't realised. After 5 minutes I thought my laptop had screwed up and I restarted it :D

Powerbrick - Massive but needed for the performance. It gets hot under stress but nothing to worry about .

Id definitely recommend this laptop to anyone spending similar.
 
Nice one, l used a Asus G46VW on my trips till it went U/S as my P170EM is too heavy to lug on trips, one of my mates took out his 18" Asus laptop while we went on a trip, thing was massive lol never left his side while we transited to our final destination lol maniac.

Now using a W110ER for portable work/films/games atm.
 
FinglisHobbit said:
Just thought I would give you guys an update on how I feel about the laptop. Im no reviewer and Im not great at putting such things together. But heres my opinion.


Screen - 1080p goodness, Great colours, no backlight issues or anything. I have a 2440p desktop monitor so initially the stepdown was a shock. But its proving great for gaming on my travels.

Keyboard - Brilliant. The lights make it look good, but the actual keys FEEL good. Ive typed on quite a few laptop keyboards in my time and this one is the best. It doesn't flex anywhere and all the keys are very responsive.

Performance - It has an 870m and and i7 processor, its performance has been fantastic for every game Ive thrown at it. When I get home from my travels Ill test it out via HDMI on my TV and see how it performs. Ive ran games like Skyrim, Tomb Raider, Dishonored, Payday2, Dota2, Rust, Borderlands 2, Farcry 3, Assassins creed 4 and Dragonage. All smooth with high details :)

Weight - Heavy. Not gonna lie its quite heavy. However its not an issue for me, it has been fine in my backpack and when its on a desk its very sturdy and feels solid.

Aesthetics. - Not the prettiest or sleekest, but it definitely looks like a gaming laptop and its by no means ugly. I think some alternatives look a bit nicer but this is definitely not something to put me off.

Build quality. - Very pleased with it. The hinge on the screen is firm and keeps the screen in place, no wobble or flex in the screen. The aluminium palm rest is nice but these metal areas are a major fingerprint/grease magnet.

Cooling - Seems fine. The laptop runs silently for my day to day stuff (like typing this now). When gaming for long periods the fan will ramp up and its louder, however its still not distracting. There is some kinda Turbofan button on it. This makes the system sound like a jet taking off. I turned this on for the first time when I was mortal drunk and hadn't realised. After 5 minutes I thought my laptop had screwed up and I restarted it :D

Powerbrick - Massive but needed for the performance. It gets hot under stress but nothing to worry about .

Id definitely recommend this laptop to anyone spending similar.
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Hi there

Thank you very much for your review of this.

It's nice to see you are happy with it. Drop me a mail if you can, I would like to discuss something :

[email protected]

ARJiBEAR
The MSI NOTEBOOK UK Team
 
CEUOTC said:
Nice one, l used a Asus G46VW on my trips till it went U/S as my P170EM is too heavy to lug on trips, one of my mates took out his 18" Asus laptop while we went on a trip, thing was massive lol never left his side while we transited to our final destination lol maniac.

Now using a W110ER for portable work/films/games atm.
Click to expand...

Yeah I gotta admit its about as heavy as I would accept, I dont think I could handle much bigger, but when it comes to its power its not surprising.

Ive had it setup in my hotel room for last couple of months while away and it just worked as a perfect desktop replacement. Its now gonna spend its time in my living room working as a gaming centre when my lass actually wants to spend time in the same room as me :D, Then after that its off on its travels with me again :)

The new generation of MSi laptops are looking good too!
 
I have one of these also - very very pleased with it overall, but I do seem to have some strange performance issues sometimes.
Most games start to slow down after a few minutes, but after a quick blast of the blower, it seems to be fine for hours! Very odd, but I can work with it, so it isn't a problem.

Oh and nVidia's optimus has been the cause of a few shouted expletives.....


Overall, I am satisfied with it, and it was well worth the extra money over a non-gaming laptop - it's replaced my desktop totally!
 
MrMojoRisin said:
Oh and mine is motion/light sensitive - it comes out of sleep mode (lid closed) when I get close to it, or turn on my desk light!
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What The....

Haha - ok, well....I can say that's one of our AWESOME functions we provide with the GT60....but I would be lying!

Glad you both are happy with it :)

ARJiBEAR
MSI
 
I suspect it could just be a sensitive toggle switch in the lid. Not really anything I am worried about as I hear when it comes on so I just open and close the lid again.

...I take it as a sign that I should probably start shutting it down properly.

But yes, happy with it is an understatement
 
Only problems for me is that a few times its gone into intel graphics mode and Ive been stuck in dota with 20fps. Then had to go into settings in Nvidia panel and then restart my game. Not sure why it did that.

Also its having intermittent problems with my sky broadband router. It struggles to connect to it , even when 5ft away from it, however my phone and other devices are working fine. Ive had to restart router and turn wifi on and off on laptop a few times to get it running properly.

Guess things are just driver issues. The laptop itself is a pleasure to use. The keyboard is brilliant for typing on. I actually feel as comfortable on it as I do with my desktop keyboard.

Infact while typing this my damn internet connection cut out again. Puzzling.
 
It does that to me after a driver update - have to go into nvidia control panel and redo the settings. If it happens to you more frequently, try finding the nvidia control panel executable and see if you can set it to always run as an administrator.

Also, the internet connection issue is a windows 8 thing. I have had it before on my other W8 Acer laptop where it wouldnt work even after a reboot. I had to put it into flight mode, run the compatibility troubleshooter, which then would enable the wifi for me and thus fix the issue.

The other great windows 8 quirk is how half the stuff doesnt work properly unless you take it out of balanced power mode and into high performance. In particular this can affect the NIC, but also results in horrible choppy HD playback with really out of sync sound.
 
MrMojoRisin said:
It does that to me after a driver update - have to go into nvidia control panel and redo the settings. If it happens to you more frequently, try finding the nvidia control panel executable and see if you can set it to always run as an administrator.

Also, the internet connection issue is a windows 8 thing. I have had it before on my other W8 Acer laptop where it wouldnt work even after a reboot. I had to put it into flight mode, run the compatibility troubleshooter, which then would enable the wifi for me and thus fix the issue.

The other great windows 8 quirk is how half the stuff doesnt work properly unless you take it out of balanced power mode and into high performance. In particular this can affect the NIC, but also results in horrible choppy HD playback with really out of sync sound.
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Thanks for the response. I think you are right the Nvidia thing was down to driver updates I think.

As for my Wifi. Its detecting and picking up neighbours Wifi etc, however when in the same room as my sky router it actually just gives me like 2-3bars when my other things are getting max. Then it fails to connect to it. Ive had to reset my router a few times then eventually it works fine.

Downloaded latest killer wifi drivers last night and havent had issue since, however only time will tell :)

Its usually plugged into wall so I will check the windows power modes too thanks.
 
If wifi is a problem I would try changing the channel on which your wifi router operates. If all your neighbours are using the same one then it will cause reception and interference/crosstalk issues I think
 
Had no connection problems today so I think it was just driver update.

But other than that...

Bought and played South Park Stick of Truth and Shadow of Mordor today. Played them both for about 4 hours with the laptop hooked up to my TV via HDMI and it ran them amazingly (not surprised with south park but mordor looked great!)

Can see laptops potentially chosen over my desktops in a few years!
 
Hi, ive got the same laptop and had it for around the same amount of time,
im happy with the performance and i agree that the keyboard is solid for a laptop.

My only gripes are with the chassis, where your palm rests when using the scroll pad there is slight movement causes a squeaking sound, the rear right of the battery as you face the laptop hangs out a few mm and there is a fair bit of movement around the power button, do you have any of these?
 
I have no complaints with the build quality. Mine seems well assembled and I don't have the issues you are describing. I guess if you are concerned enough about them then perhaps try to return it?

The plastic is very flexible around the power button though.

My main issue is the cooling right now - I have read reports that these laptops tend to have poorly applied thermal paste, so I am considering to repaste the cpu/gpu.

But I guess that would invalidate my warranty
 
OK, So now I simply cannot get my laptop to connect to my Wifi. Its bloody annoying. It picks everything up but "cannot connect". I think this killerlan thing is a crock of crap.

Im using my phone to usb tether it right now and its fine, but Im a bit frustrated with this wifi issue coming back. I hope they ditch killer in future. Seems lots of issues have been mentioned online.
 
FinglisHobbit said:
OK, So now I simply cannot get my laptop to connect to my Wifi. Its bloody annoying. It picks everything up but "cannot connect". I think this killerlan thing is a crock of crap.

Im using my phone to usb tether it right now and its fine, but Im a bit frustrated with this wifi issue coming back. I hope they ditch killer in future. Seems lots of issues have been mentioned online.
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Hi,

Can you contact : [email protected] ASAP stating your wi-fi issue.

They will be able to help/fix.

Sorry to hear that the wifi is having those issues.

Regards
 
Hi arji. I'll send an email explaining the issues.

Always good dealing with you guys so I'm not slating the laptop, just some dodgy driver or hardware issue with this wireless card.

Will update thread later. Thanks.
 
FinglisHobbit said:
Hi arji. I'll send an email explaining the issues.

Always good dealing with you guys so I'm not slating the laptop, just some dodgy driver or hardware issue with this wireless card.

Will update thread later. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Please matey.

I can always push it from my end if needed!

ARJiBEAR
 
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