Frostycomputers MSI laptop Reviews

MSI G-Series Notebook Overview

2009-06-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

Gamers have found a new approach to staying competitive while not bogging themselves down with an overly bulky system. Gaming notebooks have streamlined the approach for users to take laptops to LANs, coffee shops, or friends’ houses to keep themselves in the game.

Harnessing the power of the latest CPUs (from Intel or AMD) and GPUs (NVIDIA or ATI), the G-Series is the definitive gaming station and is a great choice for mobile gaming regardless of your budget.

You can choose between the 15” or 17” models and they include great features like a touch-sensitive media control bar, built in mic/webcam, gamer oriented keyboard with full numpad, and one-touch overclocking/eco settings to push your performance or battery life to the edge.

Higher end models also include Blu-ray drives and HDMI connections so that your gaming station also becomes a high-definition video entertainment center.

We started posting a couple of benchmarks below, but we need to clean them up. We should also get a video overview of the unit as well (once we get it all setup).

You can purchase the latest MSI G-series notebooks from Frostycomputers.com and check out MSIMobile.com for the latest hardware.

MSI GX720 Gaming Laptop Nvidia 9600M GT 512 ddr3

2009-06-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Marketing Name	GX720 US Gaming NoteBook
Setting	Turbo
Chipset	PM45
Testing Configuration
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ 2.53GHz
RAM	4GB DDR2 @ 5-5-5-15
VGA	Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT 512MB
HDD	Western Digital 320GB HD
OS	Windows Vista Home Edition
Display Mode	1680x1050 @ 60Hz
Additional Features	Wifi, Bluetooth, BD-Rom, WebCam, etc.
Battery	Six Cell
Result
3DMark series
3DMark06 1024*768 32bit	6726
CPU score	2732
3DMark06 1280*1024 32bit	5368
CPU score	2713
3DMark Vantage 1280*1024 32bit	P1743
CPU test	6046
GPU test	1408
Sub-system Benchmarks
PCMark Vantage	4269
Memories Suite	2831
Gaming Suite	3873
Music Suite	4203
Commuinication Suite	4491
Productivity Suite	3114
HDD Test Suite	2595
SiSoft Sandra 2009 15.42
CPU Benchmark
Dhrystone iSSE4.2(GIPS)	25.11
Whetstone iSSE3(GFLOPS)	21.56
CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
Int x8 iSSE4.1(Mpixel/s)	52.49
Float x4 iSSE2(Mpixel/s)	30.4
Double x2 iSSE2(Mpixel/s)	15.38
Multi-Core Efficiency
Inter-Core Bandwidth(GB/s)	8.79
Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
Int Buff'd iSSE2(GB/s)	6.12
Float Buff'd iSSE2(GB/s)	6.12

MSI GT627 gaming notebook Nvidia 9800 GS Intel P8400

2009-06-17T12:27:00.001-07:00

Marketing Name	GT627
Setting	Turbo
Chipset	PM45
Testing Configuration
CPU	Core2Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
RAM	4GB DDR2 5-5-5-15 @ 800MHz
VGA	Nvidia GeForce 9800M GS
HDD	320GB SATA
OS	Windows Vista 32-bit
Display Mode	1280 x 800 @ 60Hz
Battery	6 Cell
Result
3DMark series
3DMark06 1024*768 32bit	9405
CPU score	2274
3DMark06 1280*800 32bit	9011
CPU score	2276
Sub-system Benchmarks
PCMark Vantage	4125
Memories Suite	3346
Gaming Suite	3804
Music Suite	4143
Commuinication Suite	4064
Productivity Suite	3339
HDD Test Suite	4283
SiSoft Sandra 2009 15.42
CPU Benchmark
Dhrystone iSSE4.2(GIPS)	22.45
Whetstone iSSE3(GFLOPS)	19.31
CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
Int x8 iSSE4.1(Mpixel/s)	46.92
Float x4 iSSE2(Mpixel/s)	27.2
Double x2 iSSE2(Mpixel/s)	13.75
Multi-Core Efficiency
Inter-Core Bandwidth(GB/s)	7.83
Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
Int Buff'd iSSE2(GB/s)	5.98
Float Buff'd iSSE2(GB/s)	5.98

MSI X-Series Overview

2009-06-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Summer is just around the corner and soon enough, there will be a bevy of college-bound students looking for laptop computers that not only get the job done, but are lightweight and compact enough to carry between classes. MSI has taken laptop design and slimmed it down to create the X-Series.

Breaking away from traditional notebook designs, the concept of the X-Series takes inspiration from the “lightness, elegance and richness of a feather.” That’s what the marketing lingo says anyway – in reality it’s looking to tempt MacBook Air buyers and bring (or keep them) on the PC side. The X-series is an inexpensive alternative, as it positions itself between traditional notebooks and value priced netbooks.

At first glance, the X-series has a very sleek look to it – the color we tested was the black X320 – and extremely light at just under 3lbs. Did we mention this is incredibly slim? 6mm at its thinnest point, 20mm at its thickest – the X-Slim seriously lives up to the moniker.

However, with the thin design comes limitations: There is no optical drive available in the unit (a USB DVD drive is sold separately) and no fancy multimedia buttons (you’re limited to the F keys with Fn hotkey), but that’s not what the X-series is going for.

This product was made for portability and still has great functionality with 3 USB ports (on the X320; the X340 only has 2, but an HDMI port as well) and still maintains a full sized keyboard and 13.4” glossy display. Additionally there are Ethernet, VGA, and mic/headphone ports as well as Wi-Fi (the X340 supports WiMax as well) and Bluetooth support. There is no PCMCIA slot but there is a card reader for additional data storage. At the top of the unit is a webcam and mic for video conferencing. Notably, you do note require a dongle to use these ports – they are all built right into the frame and done exceptionally well.

Quite possibly the biggest feature of the X-series is the price – between $700 and $900. This brings it within a reasonable price for the end user compared to the Macbook Air.

MSI also put a lot of focus on the fact that the X-series has a pretty incredible battery life – and naturally we wanted to see this for ourselves. Looking at the documentation, we see that they’ve included Intel’s latest ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) which is supposed to use 1/6th the power of traditional notebook processors.

We tested out the battery with MobileMark 2007 and found some very interesting results.
Using the “Reader 2007” scenario we were able to obtain 1172 minutes of battery life – which is almost 20 hours. While this may not be realistic in terms of long term use, it’s genuinely useful to know that the laptop is conserving so much power while still being used.

Part of the battery life being this good is because of Intel’s ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor which lowers the voltage by nearly 1/6th of its original wattage. This is fantastic for mobile pcs, but there are limitations. This laptop isn’t going to playing the latest games or render film but that’s not the segment it’s trying to reach. It’s definitely for business professionals and students.

The laptop is pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium but will be Windows 7 ready when it launches.

Check out our hands-on X320 and 340 videos (coming soon!) to get a closer look at these fantastic, inexpensive ultra-slim notebooks.

2009-06-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

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Here is a test video about the MSI GX620 gaming laptop: