Reporting in!

So much for a GAMING LAPTOP brand. If they were a bit more proactive (offering upgrades, proper support for self mods, selling optional parts) they could really make a killing - us "gamers" like to modify and tweak stuff and often have loose financial control to boot.

Like this they're still quite a while away from being a good "gaming" oriented brand. They really need to understand that in the long run, selling just a "product" isn't as profitable as selling the "experience".

My queries for spare batteries are still not addressed by MSI careline...

I mean it's not that they're doing a BAD job, they just could do MUCH better, service wise especially.

I wonder if bro Storm88 can check the distributor about prices of the GE40-20C battery.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Aug 30 2013, 02:07 PM

I'd like to think that it's simply because they're new to the market, and isn't even a major player yet (people around me are like "What blardy China brand laptop are you using?").

But they aren't doing themselves any favors by not focusing (AT ALL) on CSR to build customer loyalty, something I think is CRUCIAL for an "underdog" company.

I mean, hiring JUST ONE GUY to spend a few hours IN THIS THREAD as an OFFICIAL rep to allay customer fears would go A HELLA LONG way.

There IS that "MSI Malaysia" guy but he's more active in the Desktop parts thread.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Aug 30 2013, 02:21 PM

I just go in reverse - I unbloat the stock install and clean the registry myself rather than start fresh.

So I dun know how to help you bro.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Aug 31 2013, 11:46 AM

That's the bloated one lol. Comes with all the shiat as well (McAfee crap mainly).

Seriously people, bundle laptops with Kaspersky/Nod32/Bitdefender please.

Running 16GB myself - max for the GE40 unfortunately. Buuuut really, I don't think I have ANYTHING that can use that 16GB fully anyway lol.

@dinraxxx: Are you running Win 8 or 7 bro? I had no troubles UN-installing and RE-installing SB Cinema on my Win 8 install. Just keep in mind it does NOTHING to make the volume louder. Clearer and sounds a bit better, yes.

As for supercharger... well... all it does is amp up that SINGLE 2.0 USB to something around 1A for charging stuff like iPads... IINM.

And THEN there's the problem of finding motherboards that support it. Not sure if my GE40 CAN run more than 16 to begin with.

@Storm88: Those SODIMMs look mighty tempting. Later arrive review quick quick.

I very jelly bro. Very very jelly.

Even if 17 inches is a bit out of my requirements.

Looking forward for MSI's laptop for Maxwell and beyond. Shitty consumer relations aside, I'm really digging their current push towards thin and powerful.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 1 2013, 03:23 PM

Because to Nvidia, we don't actually exist. Nvidia expects the VENDOR (MSI) to update drivers up to whatever is "current". This has ALWAYS been an issue with mobile GPU drivers, especially the ones that are not "top-range" (like the 770 and 780).

Sometimes you get lucky though, like cimo. Unfortunately Nvidia treats the 760 and the 765 like unwanted b'tard children and it's not gonna be that easy for us.

Buuuuuuuut, with a few tweaks you can "circumvent" this issue. Google "laptopvideo2go" and "Nvidia inf modding" and you're good to go - I'm already running 320.49, but I had to jump through a few hoops to get there.

With INF modding you can install ANY driver you want, but note that you'll also have to disable "driver signature enforcement" in Windows for it to work.

Plus, if you're installing beta drivers, it might not work at all.

Later when Nvidia releases the LAST stable 321 driver, I'll go up to that. Bleeding edge performance isn't worth the glitches and bugs.

@zaicon: I didn't pursue the quotation, but from the GT60's battery price, we can infer that the GE40 battery will cost around 500++. Not really worth it as a spare considering the GE40 has very good battery life anyway.

But we can't really blame MSI. That (500++) was the price of my old XPS M1210 battery as well.

As for laptop coolers, it depends. I'm currently running both the U2 Plus and the X-Lite II. The U2P is good because it's solid aluminium and the fans are configurable/replaceable. I'm already running 3x fans on my U2P (with an extra U1 fan I bought in LYP) and I know I can just buy new ones when it dies.

But the U2P doesn't have a built in hub like the X-Lite (or the Evo) and it's GIGANTIC for it's size (it fits the GE40 just nice, but it's not slim). Plus the huge single fan on the X-Lite seems to blow more air volume than even my 3x U2P setup.

BTW, the U3/U3 Plus is for 15-17 inchers ler. It would be EVEN MORE GIGANTIC than the already very thick ass U2 Plus, but if you like extra space on your cooler (the U2 Plus is a perfect fit, not much extra space) and 3 fans out of the box + fan speed controller, why not.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 04:24 PM

Lol. MOST vendors are like that la. Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer etc... Most of them prefer to wait until a driver is CONFIRMED stable before they'll commit to vendor driver upgrade. Otherwise the number of people coming in for "warranty claims" due to driver BSODs will increase rapidly.

In this case it's not really MSI's fault. It's a very common thing. Hence the wide spread of INF modding.

I mean, if you care enough to want "updated" GPU drivers, you'll probably have the skills to mod your own drivers (and take your own responsibility if sheet happens) anyway, amarite?

But being a "Gaming" oriented brand nowadays, they should have worked with Nvidia to at least make all the driver updates compatible with their laptops straight without modding (or updated their drivers more frequently, like you said). That would have helped them win a whole lot more brownie points amongst gamers.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 04:26 PM

Welkam Welkam!

How's your new baby so far? Start gaming yet?

I gave up on laptop speakers long ago, even if the GT60/70 seems to have a good set. And the GS70 comes with a woofer right?

For speakers, if you wanna keep it portable why not get foldable headphones. The Koss PortaPro is what I'm using while on the move - it's small, cheap, (relatively) comfy and sounds really good (good enough to give my "gaming" Logitech G230 a good ass whopping any day lol).



It's also collapsible into a tiny bundle that my I can easily throw into my laptop bag. Plus, if you take care of it it'll last forever lol.

The Sennheiser PX200 is another choice for a good sounding foldable portable but it's slightly more exp.

Just a thought.

PS. Koss really ought to come up with a "gaming" headset version of the PortaPro. Really.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 05:03 PM

Nah I know what you were saying regarding the InEvo, it's this one right?



I was just relating with what I have (the X-Lite). The InEvo is the same as the X-Lite in the sense that the fans (or in the InEvo's case, the vents) are built-in and stuck there where it's built. Oh, and that it has a hub as well.

Our GE40 air intakes are mostly located towards the front of the bottom. The InEvo fans are built more to the back and pushes air out the middle and towards the back. Unfortunately, our air intakes are a bit more forward than the InEvo air vents (and split slightly to the sides), so I don't think it's optimal for the GE40, as far as airflow is concerned.

Unless, of course, you push the GE40 wayyyyy back. But even than the InEvo vents will not cover the GE40 air intakes properly.

The X-lite (or any of the other "big-single-fan" designs) might work better as they spread the air volume equally towards the entire bottom. But, like I said before, the primary issue with built-in fans is that if they die (the InEvo fans included) you'll have to go trash it or go for warranty replacement already.

In this scenario, I'd say get a U3/U3 Plus, simply because you can adjust and move the fans around to fit ANY laptop you have and will buy in the future, plus the fans themselves are replaceable (or if need be, you can simply built new fans from scratch).

Unless, of course, you really need the USB hub (which the U3 does not have), or really like the look of the InEvo.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 06:12 PM

Well, the U2 Plus is RM60+ (not sure how much the U3 is) but it will potentially last forever with minimal cost if you care to replace the fans once in a while (after the ori fans have died) with your own cheap DIY desktop cooler fans (say, RM5 + a few minutes of wiring so that it'll run from USB).

If you don't care about the fans than even better. It should readily outlast ANY laptop with zero maintenance (it's just a metal tray with holes lol).

Plus it doubles as a metal tray case to carry your laptop around and protect it.

The design is ingenious really. A shame there's no cheap OEM pirate of it yet.

As for room temps, well, I don't have aircond so I'll have to take all the airflow I can get from my coolers.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 06:29 PM

I already got my Logitech ler. And my old PortaPro.

Don't poison me summore dude.

Later I stress I do this:



Die hard fans!

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 06:40 PM

I googled. Holy shiat. A cooler + 2.1 speakers? Nothing good will come out of this.

Really, it does look cool but speakers? I'm thinking a normal cooler + cheap edifier/sonic gear speakers will do a helluva better job.

Buuuuuuut, that's just me. In the end the GE40 gets hot anyway if you're not in an air conditioned environment so WTH, get something you like lar.

Personally my vote for cheap good cooler goes to the X-Lite II at RM50. It works tremendously well + USB hub and it's damn thin to boot.

If you plan to play around with an extreme number of fans any time in the future, of course the U2/U3 Plus. You can even get a couple of the biggest desktop cooling fans you can find, zip tie them to the U2, cobble up a USB power connection and see if you need any more air lol.

The Deep Cool multicore series also seems not bad. 4 fans in the X6/X8/X4, but I'm not really sure of DC's long term reliability because I don't really stray far from Coolermaster for my cooling pads.

But like I said, get something that you like. As long as it doesn't cool the WRONG part of the bottom it'll be fine.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 08:09 PM

Have fun hunting. Oh and if you're going LYP, check out Thundermatch on the top floor, they sell extra U1 fans (single fan) and those REALLY push air, even better than the stock U2 double fans at least. Plus they clip on perfectly in the U2/U3.

That's the config I'm using, 1x U1 fan for the GPU vent (which REALLY needs air) and 1x Twin U2 fans for the HDD vent.

It still gets hot anyway though lol. I wonder how far we are from refrigerator coil equipped laptop coolers.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 2 2013, 08:34 PM

Yep. Darned huge SSD.

I'm all for a smaller, faster SSD + huge HDD combo though - I just can't justify sinking money into one HUGE SSD.

Do we have 3TB 2.5 HDDs yet?

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 3 2013, 11:31 AM

Well, it's back to the age old question: Space or speed?

I'm all for the M500 myself as it supports Haswell devsleep for lower power consumption at idle AND because it uses MLC. I like Samsung (quality stuff, good prices and speed) but I have a great distrust towards TLC for long term durability.

I mean, I personally change laptops (and major parts) like once every 5 years, well over the general TLC MTF consensus (3-4 years approx).

Sure, you can get unlucky with even an SLC SSD (or a HDD for that matter) and have it die on you in a month but that's just luck and chance.

In the end though, as long as it's not SandFarce based you'll be okay. As much as I distrust TLC, I flat out have zero confidence in SandFarce controllers after all that hoo haa a while back.

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 3 2013, 11:47 AM

Oh, they've had a few others too. TRIM issues, especially with incompressible data... SATA sleep/reconnection issues leading to full on SSD failures... Broken 256-bit AES encryption... Forced proprietary encryption that destroys all hopes of data recovery after catastrophic SSD failures. Stuff like that.

See here for details:
http://bit.ly/17Ijsaz
http://bit.ly/17ImUlF
http://bit.ly/1ea88oA

"Firmware update issues" make it sound so trivial. Unfortunately I really don't think inherent design issues with the controller chips themselves can be fixed much with "firmware updates" in the long run. They can delay the problems from coming up, but the inevitable will happen regardless.

Sure, they MIGHT have fixed things with "new" chips by now ("might" being the operative word here: some of the issues up top are still happening), but personally I'm not gonna play Russian Roulette with my data, especially not when it's going to be my primary laptop's primary storage drive.  

Sooooo I'm sticking to Crucial/Plextor for the time being, or at least NOT anyone using SandFarce controllers (Intel/OCZ/Kingston/Corsair) OR TLC chips (Samsung low-end).

This post has been edited by Eiraku: Sep 3 2013, 07:53 PM