And I think that you've clearly missed the difference between a "best gaming laptop" and a "best general use" laptop, considering the fact that you linked a chart placing THREE CHROMEBOOKS above an Asus ROG laptop. At least, that's my opinion.
Curious to see what the thermals look like. I know this class has suffered from a less-than-ideal cooling solution in the past, but this new chassis leads me to believe they've addressed that...?
Well I did some google searches and the CPU cooling looks on par with clevo, but the GPU cooling looks inferior. The fan is not quite a large and spins the wrong way. In addition the GPU core heatpipes only appear to be 5mm, which is the same as the older HM and EM series, but smaller than the dual 6mm on modern SM series. If MSI doesn't warp their die contact plates like clevo does though then unmodded cooling may end up better anyway.
I haven't looked into this in detail yet, but it looks like the cooling is doing better than before. Clevo's fans are still larger and more powerful, but the laptops are also thicker to accommodate those fans. ASUS still has the quietest gaming solution in my experience, but the G750 is larger than the G72 I'm pretty sure.
there have been several reviews done on this new chassis. MSI did the GT72 refresh with the same i7 4710 and gtx 880m. Thermals were lower than Asus, and even with similar chipped Dell. Without 'turbo fan' on, temps were well below throttling limits. With 'turbo fan' on, temps were incredibly low, fan noise incredibly high.
The Gt70 has higher GPU temps/throttling with their single fan, but Asus has high/throttling CPU temps with their dual fan. For gaming the GT70 was still a beast even with throttling, but it wasn't the best ill admit. But for rendering/CPU intensive activities, the GT70 is actually one of the best.
Most of the charts are labeled "Ultra", but then underneath say "1920x1080 VeryHigh", except for the very last chart which says "1920x1080 Ultra". The same is true for the charts on "High".
Overall, an impressive mGPU. Can it be configured with 1TB SSDs instead?
Thanks -- I forgot to change the subtitles on the copy/paste/edit when making the graphs. I've put in the settings used (as much as possible) now.
As for larger SSDs, the top model comes with four 256GB SSDs in RAID 0, and the usual places that do custom MSI notebooks should allow you to swap out the 1TB HDD for a 1TB SSD.
I don't need the throughput of RAID SSDs so I'm always left thinking these big laptops would be much more compelling with no M.2 at all and an accessible 2.5" bay. Nice high-cap SSDs are permanently around or below 40 cents per gig, so I just balk at the prices being asked.
On the topic of Optimus support, maybe Nvidia's new "batteryboost" technology is so magically delicious that they don't need it in order to have good battery life anymore. I have an Optimus-equipped laptop and it's mildly annoying sometimes so I can see the appeal of no Optimus on a gaming laptop. Optimus does reduce performance a bit too.
On the desktop you're hard-pressed to get any big GPU consume less than 10 W. That's more than the idle power consumption of an entire modern laptop...
There are pros and cons; I'd like to see an idle mobile GPU at no more than 1-2W before I'd say it's a reasonable alternative to Optimus, and I don't think NVIDIA is there yet. Keep in mind however that their mobile GPUs typically have much lower idle clocks than their desktop parts. Anyway, it's something I'll look at in the full review.
Happily using manual graphics switching on my Alienware M11x R1 (GMA 4500H + GT 335M). I like being able to lock it to one or the other as needed. Most of the time I'm using the laptop for basic tasks, and would prefer that the Nvidia graphics stay off (and not turn on unnecessarily). Switching between GPU's doesn't require a reboot either. Just need to close any programs that use the GPU. For me this involves Firefox, f.lux and Steam. Not a big deal.
Just wish that I could use a more recent driver version. Stuck on this custom 263.08 version, and modified drivers (to get Optimus working) don't properly disable the Nvidia GPU, resulting in poor battery life (same as if using the Nvidia graphics). With light usage I get 6+ hours with GMA 4500HD, but only 3.5 hours with the GT 335M.
I wonder if the GT72 would have longer battery life (on Intel graphics) with manual switching, compared to if they used Optimus?
I don't really get the specs on this laptops - 4xSSD RAID and 32gb of RAM? What on earth does that do for you besides drive the price up and *maybe* (it won't) offer a tiny percentage of performance upgrade. If this was some kind of render machine that setup might actually be of use but as a gamer I'd much rather see more CPU, larger storage, etc.
I understand the sentiment on the RAID 0 SSDs. Still, I will say that some operations are super fast. For example, after copying over all my Steam files (185GB or so), quite a few games need to have files "validated" -- something doesn't quite get transferred over right. On an HDD and a large game, this can take as long as 5-10 minutes. On a fast SSD, it might take a minute or so. With the GT72, the validation process was the fastest I've ever experienced, probably no more than 15-20 seconds. Is that worth the price premium over a single SSD? Probably not.
What is the likelihood of one of four SSD controllers breaking down instead of one? How about wear leveling algorithms of 4x128GB drives instead of one 512GB SSD? I'd guess that at least the later suffers since the controllers can only shuffle data around their own small turf.
Are the performance benefits really worth this tradeoff when a single fast M.2 Drive should reach over 700MB/s sustained transfer...
this isn't the laptop for you. as a gamer you'd be better off buying the base model with 980m and just adding your own m.2 drive and calling it a day. there are 4 different versions of the dominator pro this one being the top specced version. this one is for the ballers and professionals who need the storage system to be fast (think video editing ) and the video ram to be high.
Technically the top spec version of the GT72 is the Dominator Pro-243. It has an i7-4980HQ instead of the 4710HQ, and it has 4x256GB SSDs (1TB) instead of 4x128GB. It's "only" $900 more. Hahaha... There's a Dominator Pro-098 that has the same 4x128GB as the 208 we received, but it uses the i7-4980HQ as well; it costs $400 more just for the CPU upgrade. Ouch.
Typo: Unboxing And Initial Impresisons page ends with: "It's also large enough and has sufficient cooling that it won't get uncomfortably hot in your lap, which is a problem with "
as to the omission (or in this case rejection) of optimus. it was done because it had to be done. a lot of people buy these laptops for cad or to run multiple screens for financial tracking and the like. optimus doesn't engage in those situations and you're left at that point with intel onboard graphics not supporting your app or only 2 displays available.
optimus is only for gamers who want improved battery life when not gaming. this isn't really the target market for something like this laptop
Dang. I just knew 4710HQ would be too weak and would bottleneck the GTX 980M in some games. Since Alienware and MSI seems to use HQ chips this year, I sincerely hope they will use their common sense and add better HQ chips (4980HQ and such).
GTX 980M should probably be around 50%+ faster than GTX 880M if the CPU wasnt bottlenecking it. Bad decision about CPU, MSI.
Mobile performance is still a trade-off. You have to accept lower, but still not noticeably so, frame rates. You also have to turn some things down that don't really matter, like AA and shadows and lighting effects and such. But basically all the GTX class GPU's will give you performance that's much better than what you'll get on a console, so it looks plenty good and plays smoothly.
Hopefully the next GPU process node drop will provide mobile parts where these trade offs go away, or at least heavily reduced. Which makes me feel good about keeping my GTX765M for at least a few years, just got it this year, so I'll probably keep it until 2018. At which point, hopefully, mobile GPU's that I can afford and don't DESTROY battery life will be available. Because that certainly doesn't exist today :)
Every time someone reviews these gaming laptops I wonder one thing: where are the laptops that are designed not to have an optical drive at all? I mean, you could certainly just leave the ODD out, but the chassis would still be designed with one in mind. What if I want a laptop with chassis that was not designed to hold an ODD at all and instead used the space for, say, better cooling?
No. You'd still be wasting space on the support structures -- connectors and rails and whatnot -- plus the casing on the extra battery itself. It'd be more efficient to just skip the ODD-bay completely and simply make the main battery itself larger. Personally, when talking of gaming laptops I want good cooling-performance and skipping the ODD-bay would allow for designing airflow properly so that cool air goes in from one side and blows out the other side, all through the whole laptop. That's what I want, real, proper cooling in a gaming-laptop, without the totally useless ODD-bay at all.
What is going on with Broadwell. I was just looking around for a current time frame and all I saw was the Core M parts for tablets. Has Intel given up on Broadwell for more powerful systems?
Is there anyway to get these graphic cards standalone? Was there any upgrade path in the retail chain? What's the connector for these and has there been any kind of hacked/modded cables for connecting these graphic cards to desktop motherboards? I think the potential for cooking this in a passive card (think HDplex) is higher then taking a desktop class board and trying to cool that. I know HDPlex has a new chassis about to be released that'll handle a 750Ti Maxwell part but this might be able to handle a 970M (if the rumored ~95w TDP is true and MAYBE even the 980M with a semi passive option; think one or two ~15dBa fans to move some air out of the chassis). Both these cards seem to out perform the 750Ti and probably would do even a little better matched with a desktop class i7 haswell. Could finally match or exceed Xbox1/PS4 class graphics with a box including the 970M or 980M & 100% passive for HTPC/DVR and ~15dBa semi passive when 1080p gaming...
Well When I upgraded my m18x r1 from radeon 6990 xfire to gtx 680m sli I ordered the gpu's from dell. You can buy the parts separately but they are not cheap at all. I paid 700 dollars each for my GTX 680m's when they first came out.
The TDP claims are true and you need a MXM slot to install these dpu's they dont go into a regular pci-e slot but the tdp claims have tpo be true as MXM slots only provide for a max of 100 watt tdp.
For this project idea you have be prepared to spend around 3000 when all is said and done and that's if you can even locate all the parts you would need. You would need to find a motherboard that supports desktop cpu's and MXM graphics cards. Like the boards used in some laptops that use full desktop cpu's. That specialized board will cost you big bucks. They use all laptop parts like so-dimms and mxm gpu's but have a regular desktop cpu socket. I believe clevo made laptops like this. The GTX 980m will probably cost 1000 dollars to buy as a standalone separate part from dell or such. So by the time you buy a proper case, the specialized mobo, the gpu, sodimm ram, tiny psu, cpu, storage, odd and whatever else you may be looking at even more than 3000. Is it really worth it just to have a silent htpc with extra potent gaming power?
You do realize you can build a very quiet htpc with MSI gaming gtx 970 gpu and that fans don't even start spinning until the gpu hits 60C so when you are doing anything other than gaming the gpu fans don't come on and then even under light gaming it can turn on just 1 of the 2 fans and since it uses large 100mm fans they spin much slower. Check out the reviews the twin frozr V cooling system with 2x 100mm fans it is literally the quietest top end GPU ever. Even the GTX 980 is super quiet like 1db louder than gtx 970. And really since the fans don't even turn on except for gaming you have the silence you are looking for when you actually need it. You don't need pure silence when you are gaming as the noise from the gaming will far drown out the tiny fan noise. When you are watching movies or doing anything else you have silence.
You can build this version of what you want far cheaper then trying to build this laptop gpu version. 100 dollar mitx board, 350 dollar gpu, 250 dollar cpu, 100 dollar ram, 75 dollar psu, 100 dollar case, 20 dollar ODD, storage varies depending on how much space you need but since you can use 2.5" drives pretty dirt cheap 230 dollars for 512GB or so. Add another 200 for top quality noctua case fans that are dead silent and a noctua cpu cooler with noctua heatsink fans that are also dead silent and you spend 1400 for something you are going to spend 3000 on doing it the convoluted way you describe. You can send me 800 dollars as a consultation fee and still be 800 cheaper
when i say large 100mm fans i mean relatively large as fans located on the gpu are typically 80mm or even smaller. 100mm size on the actual gpu is the largest size to date to come pre installed on a gpu.
Got a MSI 17” barebones with 680m a few years ago, travel with it and have it on every day very happy with it and it was cheaper than anything else when the 680m came out. Very solid laptop if you don’t mind putting in your own OS, HD and CPU.
With 2 mDP 1.2, an HDMI, and a GigE port, this thing is pretty much a dream engineering workstation. Compare that with HP's EliteBook line that has 1 DP port, or Dell's Precision line that has 1 DP and 1 HDMI.
I'm assuming these m2 slots are sata based and not pci-e based. That kinda sucks. What I would really love to see would be a different radical allocation of the 16 cpu based pci-e lanes. Only 8 lanes are needed for the GPU there really is no difference between 16x and 8x. So if msi could run the gpu from 8x lanes and then run 2x pci-e 3.0 lanes to each m2 slot. so 4x 2x lanes for the 4 m2 slots equals 8 lanes and 8x lanes for the gpu there is your 16 total lanes. Yes I know 4x lanes for each m2 would be ideal but even 2 lanes gives 2GB/sec which is pretty much faster than any ssd currently. If this machine took 4x pci-e 3.0 2x m2 ssd's i'd be all over it. RAID 0 with a max of 8GB/sec throughput is insane. 4x of the Samsung 1TB sm951 m2 ssd's with native pci-e 3.0 interface and nvme would be insanity. 4TB of super fast SSD storage -drools-
It's time to upgrade my XPS 15 L502X (GT 525M), and I'm seriously considering the GT60 Dominator or GS60 Ghost, both with the 970M. Are there any differences I should be aware of other than the form factor and the price? I know the Dominator has a larger, replaceable battery, and of course, the Ghost is much lighter and thinner.
Do they use the same screen? Would you expect much of a difference in performance?
I know there aren't that many people who have the 970M yet, but I'd also be interested in general feedback from anyone who owns an earlier generation GT60 or GS60.
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Ironchef3500 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I'll take one.Da W - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I'll take one of those in a 27" touchscreen all-in-onerodolfwelsh - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
I think you might be missing some of the best gaming laptops when you consider MSI GT72 (see http://is.gd/EiRvmC for example), at least in my opinion.Highlanderwolf - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
And I think that you've clearly missed the difference between a "best gaming laptop" and a "best general use" laptop, considering the fact that you linked a chart placing THREE CHROMEBOOKS above an Asus ROG laptop. At least, that's my opinion.Aegrum - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Curious to see what the thermals look like. I know this class has suffered from a less-than-ideal cooling solution in the past, but this new chassis leads me to believe they've addressed that...?Khenglish - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Seconded. If MSI picks up their cooling then there is no reason to pick Clevo over them anymore.Khenglish - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Well I did some google searches and the CPU cooling looks on par with clevo, but the GPU cooling looks inferior. The fan is not quite a large and spins the wrong way. In addition the GPU core heatpipes only appear to be 5mm, which is the same as the older HM and EM series, but smaller than the dual 6mm on modern SM series. If MSI doesn't warp their die contact plates like clevo does though then unmodded cooling may end up better anyway.JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I haven't looked into this in detail yet, but it looks like the cooling is doing better than before. Clevo's fans are still larger and more powerful, but the laptops are also thicker to accommodate those fans. ASUS still has the quietest gaming solution in my experience, but the G750 is larger than the G72 I'm pretty sure.xenol - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
ASUS's G series has really good cooling without having the laptop take up as much volume as a boat anchor.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
The G750 series are just as big and do not offer upgradable cards.dblkk - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
there have been several reviews done on this new chassis. MSI did the GT72 refresh with the same i7 4710 and gtx 880m. Thermals were lower than Asus, and even with similar chipped Dell.Without 'turbo fan' on, temps were well below throttling limits. With 'turbo fan' on, temps were incredibly low, fan noise incredibly high.
The Gt70 has higher GPU temps/throttling with their single fan, but Asus has high/throttling CPU temps with their dual fan. For gaming the GT70 was still a beast even with throttling, but it wasn't the best ill admit. But for rendering/CPU intensive activities, the GT70 is actually one of the best.
Aionios - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
well the thermals are incredible here's a video of full review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-d5k-tkBA&li...Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
They are getting IPS displays in a month or two, 17.3" IPS have only starting to be made.Current models should be upgradable since they use a 30 pin eDP connector.
nathanddrews - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Good to know. I recently tried to upgrade my wife's Lenovo only to discover it used a single-channel LVDS cable. No 1080p IPS for her.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Also there is a 4980HQ version to launch too for those who want more CPU power. It wont be cheap however.nathanddrews - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Possible correction:Most of the charts are labeled "Ultra", but then underneath say "1920x1080 VeryHigh", except for the very last chart which says "1920x1080 Ultra". The same is true for the charts on "High".
Overall, an impressive mGPU. Can it be configured with 1TB SSDs instead?
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Thanks -- I forgot to change the subtitles on the copy/paste/edit when making the graphs. I've put in the settings used (as much as possible) now.As for larger SSDs, the top model comes with four 256GB SSDs in RAID 0, and the usual places that do custom MSI notebooks should allow you to swap out the 1TB HDD for a 1TB SSD.
Jambe - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I don't need the throughput of RAID SSDs so I'm always left thinking these big laptops would be much more compelling with no M.2 at all and an accessible 2.5" bay. Nice high-cap SSDs are permanently around or below 40 cents per gig, so I just balk at the prices being asked.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
There are a variety of models out which can be customised to your needs.bleh0 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I can't wait for a proper roundup of the various 980m equipped models.Flunk - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
On the topic of Optimus support, maybe Nvidia's new "batteryboost" technology is so magically delicious that they don't need it in order to have good battery life anymore. I have an Optimus-equipped laptop and it's mildly annoying sometimes so I can see the appeal of no Optimus on a gaming laptop. Optimus does reduce performance a bit too.MrSpadge - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
On the desktop you're hard-pressed to get any big GPU consume less than 10 W. That's more than the idle power consumption of an entire modern laptop...JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
There are pros and cons; I'd like to see an idle mobile GPU at no more than 1-2W before I'd say it's a reasonable alternative to Optimus, and I don't think NVIDIA is there yet. Keep in mind however that their mobile GPUs typically have much lower idle clocks than their desktop parts. Anyway, it's something I'll look at in the full review.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
No optimus means you can overclock the display refresh rate ;)flemeister - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Happily using manual graphics switching on my Alienware M11x R1 (GMA 4500H + GT 335M). I like being able to lock it to one or the other as needed. Most of the time I'm using the laptop for basic tasks, and would prefer that the Nvidia graphics stay off (and not turn on unnecessarily). Switching between GPU's doesn't require a reboot either. Just need to close any programs that use the GPU. For me this involves Firefox, f.lux and Steam. Not a big deal.Just wish that I could use a more recent driver version. Stuck on this custom 263.08 version, and modified drivers (to get Optimus working) don't properly disable the Nvidia GPU, resulting in poor battery life (same as if using the Nvidia graphics). With light usage I get 6+ hours with GMA 4500HD, but only 3.5 hours with the GT 335M.
I wonder if the GT72 would have longer battery life (on Intel graphics) with manual switching, compared to if they used Optimus?
Icehawk - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I don't really get the specs on this laptops - 4xSSD RAID and 32gb of RAM? What on earth does that do for you besides drive the price up and *maybe* (it won't) offer a tiny percentage of performance upgrade. If this was some kind of render machine that setup might actually be of use but as a gamer I'd much rather see more CPU, larger storage, etc.Spoelie - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
You forgot the 8GB vram on the GPU.JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I understand the sentiment on the RAID 0 SSDs. Still, I will say that some operations are super fast. For example, after copying over all my Steam files (185GB or so), quite a few games need to have files "validated" -- something doesn't quite get transferred over right. On an HDD and a large game, this can take as long as 5-10 minutes. On a fast SSD, it might take a minute or so. With the GT72, the validation process was the fastest I've ever experienced, probably no more than 15-20 seconds. Is that worth the price premium over a single SSD? Probably not.zepi - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
What is the likelihood of one of four SSD controllers breaking down instead of one? How about wear leveling algorithms of 4x128GB drives instead of one 512GB SSD? I'd guess that at least the later suffers since the controllers can only shuffle data around their own small turf.Are the performance benefits really worth this tradeoff when a single fast M.2 Drive should reach over 700MB/s sustained transfer...
wetwareinterface - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
this isn't the laptop for you. as a gamer you'd be better off buying the base model with 980m and just adding your own m.2 drive and calling it a day. there are 4 different versions of the dominator pro this one being the top specced version. this one is for the ballers and professionals who need the storage system to be fast (think video editing ) and the video ram to be high.JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Technically the top spec version of the GT72 is the Dominator Pro-243. It has an i7-4980HQ instead of the 4710HQ, and it has 4x256GB SSDs (1TB) instead of 4x128GB. It's "only" $900 more. Hahaha... There's a Dominator Pro-098 that has the same 4x128GB as the 208 we received, but it uses the i7-4980HQ as well; it costs $400 more just for the CPU upgrade. Ouch.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
The 243 and 098 are cancelled for the 444 and 445 which are being updated to IPS displays but otherwise at the same price and load out.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Another note, MSI have an upgrade program going into effect on the GT72 series.Meaker10 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
They will be selling 970M/980M upgrade kits to owners of 8xx series systems.mischlep - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Typo: Unboxing And Initial Impresisons page ends with: "It's also large enough and has sufficient cooling that it won't get uncomfortably hot in your lap, which is a problem with "JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Fixed... was busy all day writing this up, so my brain left off a few closing thoughts. Hahaha.wetwareinterface - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
as to the omission (or in this case rejection) of optimus. it was done because it had to be done. a lot of people buy these laptops for cad or to run multiple screens for financial tracking and the like. optimus doesn't engage in those situations and you're left at that point with intel onboard graphics not supporting your app or only 2 displays available.optimus is only for gamers who want improved battery life when not gaming. this isn't really the target market for something like this laptop
huaxshin - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Dang. I just knew 4710HQ would be too weak and would bottleneck the GTX 980M in some games. Since Alienware and MSI seems to use HQ chips this year, I sincerely hope they will use their common sense and add better HQ chips (4980HQ and such).GTX 980M should probably be around 50%+ faster than GTX 880M if the CPU wasnt bottlenecking it. Bad decision about CPU, MSI.
Good Preview Jarred
Hrel - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Mobile performance is still a trade-off. You have to accept lower, but still not noticeably so, frame rates. You also have to turn some things down that don't really matter, like AA and shadows and lighting effects and such. But basically all the GTX class GPU's will give you performance that's much better than what you'll get on a console, so it looks plenty good and plays smoothly.Hopefully the next GPU process node drop will provide mobile parts where these trade offs go away, or at least heavily reduced. Which makes me feel good about keeping my GTX765M for at least a few years, just got it this year, so I'll probably keep it until 2018. At which point, hopefully, mobile GPU's that I can afford and don't DESTROY battery life will be available. Because that certainly doesn't exist today :)
Mikemk - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
"cranking every dial up to 11" XKCD reference?JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Older than that: This is Spinal Tap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven)"As you can see, these numbers all go up to eleven. That's one louder than ten...." :-)
WereCatf - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Every time someone reviews these gaming laptops I wonder one thing: where are the laptops that are designed not to have an optical drive at all? I mean, you could certainly just leave the ODD out, but the chassis would still be designed with one in mind. What if I want a laptop with chassis that was not designed to hold an ODD at all and instead used the space for, say, better cooling?sullrosh - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
just make the ODD removable and design an extra battery to fit in the slot.WereCatf - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
No. You'd still be wasting space on the support structures -- connectors and rails and whatnot -- plus the casing on the extra battery itself. It'd be more efficient to just skip the ODD-bay completely and simply make the main battery itself larger. Personally, when talking of gaming laptops I want good cooling-performance and skipping the ODD-bay would allow for designing airflow properly so that cool air goes in from one side and blows out the other side, all through the whole laptop. That's what I want, real, proper cooling in a gaming-laptop, without the totally useless ODD-bay at all.danjw - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
What is going on with Broadwell. I was just looking around for a current time frame and all I saw was the Core M parts for tablets. Has Intel given up on Broadwell for more powerful systems?Acarney - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Is there anyway to get these graphic cards standalone? Was there any upgrade path in the retail chain? What's the connector for these and has there been any kind of hacked/modded cables for connecting these graphic cards to desktop motherboards? I think the potential for cooking this in a passive card (think HDplex) is higher then taking a desktop class board and trying to cool that. I know HDPlex has a new chassis about to be released that'll handle a 750Ti Maxwell part but this might be able to handle a 970M (if the rumored ~95w TDP is true and MAYBE even the 980M with a semi passive option; think one or two ~15dBa fans to move some air out of the chassis). Both these cards seem to out perform the 750Ti and probably would do even a little better matched with a desktop class i7 haswell. Could finally match or exceed Xbox1/PS4 class graphics with a box including the 970M or 980M & 100% passive for HTPC/DVR and ~15dBa semi passive when 1080p gaming...Laststop311 - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Well When I upgraded my m18x r1 from radeon 6990 xfire to gtx 680m sli I ordered the gpu's from dell. You can buy the parts separately but they are not cheap at all. I paid 700 dollars each for my GTX 680m's when they first came out.The TDP claims are true and you need a MXM slot to install these dpu's they dont go into a regular pci-e slot but the tdp claims have tpo be true as MXM slots only provide for a max of 100 watt tdp.
For this project idea you have be prepared to spend around 3000 when all is said and done and that's if you can even locate all the parts you would need. You would need to find a motherboard that supports desktop cpu's and MXM graphics cards. Like the boards used in some laptops that use full desktop cpu's. That specialized board will cost you big bucks. They use all laptop parts like so-dimms and mxm gpu's but have a regular desktop cpu socket. I believe clevo made laptops like this. The GTX 980m will probably cost 1000 dollars to buy as a standalone separate part from dell or such. So by the time you buy a proper case, the specialized mobo, the gpu, sodimm ram, tiny psu, cpu, storage, odd and whatever else you may be looking at even more than 3000. Is it really worth it just to have a silent htpc with extra potent gaming power?
You do realize you can build a very quiet htpc with MSI gaming gtx 970 gpu and that fans don't even start spinning until the gpu hits 60C so when you are doing anything other than gaming the gpu fans don't come on and then even under light gaming it can turn on just 1 of the 2 fans and since it uses large 100mm fans they spin much slower. Check out the reviews the twin frozr V cooling system with 2x 100mm fans it is literally the quietest top end GPU ever. Even the GTX 980 is super quiet like 1db louder than gtx 970. And really since the fans don't even turn on except for gaming you have the silence you are looking for when you actually need it. You don't need pure silence when you are gaming as the noise from the gaming will far drown out the tiny fan noise. When you are watching movies or doing anything else you have silence.
You can build this version of what you want far cheaper then trying to build this laptop gpu version. 100 dollar mitx board, 350 dollar gpu, 250 dollar cpu, 100 dollar ram, 75 dollar psu, 100 dollar case, 20 dollar ODD, storage varies depending on how much space you need but since you can use 2.5" drives pretty dirt cheap 230 dollars for 512GB or so. Add another 200 for top quality noctua case fans that are dead silent and a noctua cpu cooler with noctua heatsink fans that are also dead silent and you spend 1400 for something you are going to spend 3000 on doing it the convoluted way you describe. You can send me 800 dollars as a consultation fee and still be 800 cheaper
Laststop311 - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
when i say large 100mm fans i mean relatively large as fans located on the gpu are typically 80mm or even smaller. 100mm size on the actual gpu is the largest size to date to come pre installed on a gpu.rpanic - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Got a MSI 17” barebones with 680m a few years ago, travel with it and have it on every day very happy with it and it was cheaper than anything else when the 680m came out. Very solid laptop if you don’t mind putting in your own OS, HD and CPU.jdrch - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
With 2 mDP 1.2, an HDMI, and a GigE port, this thing is pretty much a dream engineering workstation. Compare that with HP's EliteBook line that has 1 DP port, or Dell's Precision line that has 1 DP and 1 HDMI.Laststop311 - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
I'm assuming these m2 slots are sata based and not pci-e based. That kinda sucks. What I would really love to see would be a different radical allocation of the 16 cpu based pci-e lanes. Only 8 lanes are needed for the GPU there really is no difference between 16x and 8x. So if msi could run the gpu from 8x lanes and then run 2x pci-e 3.0 lanes to each m2 slot. so 4x 2x lanes for the 4 m2 slots equals 8 lanes and 8x lanes for the gpu there is your 16 total lanes. Yes I know 4x lanes for each m2 would be ideal but even 2 lanes gives 2GB/sec which is pretty much faster than any ssd currently. If this machine took 4x pci-e 3.0 2x m2 ssd's i'd be all over it. RAID 0 with a max of 8GB/sec throughput is insane. 4x of the Samsung 1TB sm951 m2 ssd's with native pci-e 3.0 interface and nvme would be insanity. 4TB of super fast SSD storage -drools-bin806 - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
People who own msi gt dominator with 870M or 880M can upgrade their GPU to a 970M or 980M....:) MSI released a video guide today..:)http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZZ5hGDZpI8
Another cool thing is you can upgrade to next generation Maxwell GPU as well when it comes out in late 2015..:)
RoninX - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
It's time to upgrade my XPS 15 L502X (GT 525M), and I'm seriously considering the GT60 Dominator or GS60 Ghost, both with the 970M. Are there any differences I should be aware of other than the form factor and the price? I know the Dominator has a larger, replaceable battery, and of course, the Ghost is much lighter and thinner.Do they use the same screen? Would you expect much of a difference in performance?
I know there aren't that many people who have the 970M yet, but I'd also be interested in general feedback from anyone who owns an earlier generation GT60 or GS60.