Full HD resolution performance gaming laptop - MSI GE60 2OE introduction

[windwithme]

Intel just launched the latest Haswell platform this June, PC and NB brand keep refreshing their product lines, the Notebook platform runs faster than before,
there are lots of new platform products in the market right now. MSI focused on the high performance and gaming platform, and refreshed very fast too.

MSI NB main product line is Gaming series, they also come out latest GE40 as 14" gaming laptop.
For Top Level still keep GT70 and GT60, High Performance gaming will be GE70, GE60 and GE40.
Since MSI performance gaming notebooks are same price range as regular high end notebooks,
but they still presents more features and performance advantages on gaming notebooks field.

This time I got GE60 2OE, the latest performance level gaming notebook.
The A cover looks like Dragon beard, will reflect different color style with different angles.

Top cover used glossy cover design, the good point is vivid and looks shinning,
the bad part is easy to scratch. They use laser reflect and red lines to increase the design style and speedy feeling.

Inside accessories
Driver CD, quick manual, clean up cloth and 2 years warranty card.

Up side one is gaming style mouse, it's optical designed, but still good positioning on cloth,
the red light will breath when use, handling feeling is also good, it will be better if enhance to laser mouse.
Below is the battery with 4400mAH 6 cell design.

Adaptor was made by Delta, it's good quality one from power supply brands, up to 120W, this one is slimmer than regular 120W adaptors, only 2.5cm.

The placement of palm rest side
SteelSeries keyboard gives good response feeling when using, also presents higher durability, but GT series keyboard is even better than GE series.
Left 1 button "Cooler Boost" is turbo cooling fan function, left 2 button is keyboard backlit enable with vivid blue light.
The holes on the up side comes with 2 channel speakers.

The platform around keyboard used metallic material design, special cutting makes the shape looks better.
Metal cover gives better touch feeling, and the signal lights at bottom side, the SD card reader on the right side.

On the left side.
Kensington lock\power input\USB 2.0\HDMI\2x USB 3.0\Line out\Line in\Headphone-out

Here comes the sound quality experience, this is objective point of view, compared with other notebooks at same level.
The sound is loud when adjust the volume to 50%, so don't need to worry about the volume small problem.
High frequency - Not too sharp, rich detail with high class sound level.
Mid frequency - Transparent sound stage, it will be better if the sound could be stronger.
Low frequency - Good present on mid-low frequency, but no subwoofer means the sound is not so powerful as GT series with subwoofer.
GE60 used total 4 speakers with 2 channels stereo, good performance on the mid and high frequency,
also good on the sound stage and overall sound field. It's not like GT series comes with subwoofer, so the bass and low frequency was not so strong.
Foy my personal opinion, GE is good for music and GT is better for movies.

From left, BD Combo / DVD Super Multi\USB2.0\D-SUB\RJ45 LAN

 

[windwithme]

15.6 inch LED backlit non-glossy panel at Full HD 1920x1080 resolution.
HD WebCam with 1280x1024 photo and 1280x720 30fps video shooting.

MSI GE60 2OE embedded with latest Intel Haswell paltform
CPU with Intel Core i7 4700QM, 100x24 => 2.4GHz, L3 6MB,
Quad Cores with HT technology become 8 cores. TurboBoost could auto overclock up to 3.4GHz, and used HM87 chipset.

OS used Windows 8
Get into the brick of the desktop, you will see the familiar Windows interface and GE60 original installed software from MSI.

Windows 8 start page, left side bricks is often used bricks, include internet, massages and office works.

Right side is more about entertainment Apps bricks.

System performance benchmarks
Nuclearus Multi Core => 24379
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 25.65/12310

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 336870

CINEBENCH 11.5
OpenGL => 57.42 fps
CPU => 6.68 pts
CPU (Single Core) => 1.50 pts

PCMark7 => 6220

Windows 8 System performance tests

GE60 2OE with Core i7 4700QM compared with last generation GT70 with Core i7 3630QM, CPU performance is almost the same.
At same default frequency with 2.4GHz, Fritz Chess Benchmark score add up around 3%
CINEBENCH 11.5 single Core add up 9%, multi CPU around 6%
Although the CPU performance of Haswell platform enhancement did not higher than last few generations, but still in reasonable range.

 

[windwithme]

GE60 built in with 2 kinds of GPUs, one comes from Intel Core i7-4700QM as HD4600 Graphics, the other is nVIDIA GeForce GTX765M with 2GB DDR5 Graphics.
First, we use 3D Mark Vantage and 3D Mark 11 as a starter benchmarks.
Intel HD4600 => P5494

Intel HD4600 => P1320

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => P15115

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => P4136

The performance between HD4600 and GTX765M is 3x or more.
But if we just compare the Intel UMA graphics from Haswell and previous version of Intel UMA, it's already close to 2x faster,
it's better for battery mode for light loading 3D usage modes, also lower temperature.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080
Intel HD4600 => 2416

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => 7163

For the 3D games around middle performance loading, if we set with 1920x1080 and middle effects,
Intel HD4600 Graphics still can play, but not so smooth. If used GTX765M graphics, things become a piece of cake with much higher score!
Heaven Benchmark 4.0
DX11 1920 X 1080
Intel HD4600 => 6.1 FPS

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => 26 FPS

If we goes for heavy loading 3D benchmarks - Heaven Benchmark,
It's hard to use UMA graphics with Full HD resolution to get smooth experience, it needs Discrete Graphics indeed,

DDR3 performance tests
DDR3 1596.4 CL11 11-11-28 1T
ADIA64 Memory Read - 15235 MB/s
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 19711 MB/s
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 22377 MB/s

New Haswell architecture with DDR3-1600 bandwidth is faster than previous 2 generation Intel platform with DDR3-1333 performance.
ADIA65 Memory Read boot up to 58%, MaXXMEM Memory-Copy up to 39% faster.
Sandra Memory Bandwidth is about 16% faster, this is another advantage of Haswell architecture.

windwithme opened up GE60 bottom case to share the interior design and placement.

 

[windwithme]

Right up side with big heatsink and fan for thermal solution, down side is 2 DDR3 DIMM slot, this 2OE version comes with 2x 8GB modules overall 16GB RAM.
Middle and upper side are 2 mSATA slots support SATA3 interface, and used 2 SSDs become Super RAID storage.

One pipeline to transfer Intel Core i7-4700QM CPU heat, and 2 pipelines to transfer the heat from nVIDIA GTX765M graphics.
Above 2 parts of the pipelines was lass than MSI GT series, GT series used 2 pipelines for the CPU and 3 pipelines for the MXM GPU module.
Right lower side is the 2.5 inch HDD port, MSI apply 750GB 7200rpm HDD, with 2 SDDs Raid 0 becomes great storage combination with fast system and good capacities!

GE60 built in with 2 mSATA3 ports, 64GBx2 SSD Raid 0 become C: Drive for OS installed,
and D: Drive with 750GB 7200rpm HDD for data storage, becomes great OS performance and good capacities.
AS SSD Benchmark - 1031
Seq Read - 987.70 MB/s Write - 810.57 MB/s
4K - 64Thrd Read - 403.75 MB/s Write - 146.58 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark
Seq Read - 967.0 MB/s Write - 749.3 MB/s

SSD Benchmark TOTAL => 3681.60
ATTO DISK Benchmark over 256k tests already reach highesst reading speed to 1050MB/s, writing performance also up to 894MB/s.

GE60 2OE used new SSD as TOSHIBA THSNF064GMCS 64GB,
The performance was really good on the mSATA product line, and great IO perfornace on Raid 0 combination.
GE60 with 2 mSATA SSD slots was really attractive for high performance storages demand users.
D: was data drive, use high performance 2.5 inch HDD as 750GB 7200rpm version. Let's take a look on the performance.
ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k reading tests up to 123.4MB/s, writing is 122.8MB/s
CrystalDiskMark
Seq Read - 124.6 MB/s Write - 122.1 MB/s

The highest reading speed is over 120MB/s, it's good on 7200rpm 2.5 inch HDD products,
if you compare with SSD Raid0 system it's not fast, but if you compare with regular laptops with HDD, it's really on the top performance.
GE60 make it to be D: Drive for saving data, 750GB is a good combination for good performance and capacities.

System temperature (room 29 degree C)
System idle mode - 47~49

Full loading on CPU with LinX -86~91 degree.

The CPU of Haswell architecture is hotter than last generation Ivy Bridge,
This time we could see that Core i7-4700QM did over 90 degree C, although it's easy to see on other brand regular notebooks,
but MSI got better thermal design on their gaming series, the previous 2 generations of Core i7 4C8T CPU was around 80 more degrees.
Haswell architecture will be a test for the thermal design of all the notebooks' brands.

Enable Cooler Boost
System idle - 40~43

Use LinX program for CPU full loading -85~90

Use 2 temperature status to present MSI Cooler Boost performance,
The idle mode and full loading mode highest temperature gap up to 6 degree C, CPU full loading temperature gap is 1 degree.
So we knew that Cooler Boost did have some advantage for the thermal, but that will makes the fan on full speed, so it will have a little bit higher noise when using.
But the noise is not so high frequency, so if you are playing games or watch movies, you could enable Cooler Boost to make system cooler.
According to my user experience, many notebooks with Dual Core CPU will over 50 degree C on idle mode and over 90 degree C on full loading,
So we could say that MSI still keep their better thermal design and performance on the GE60 with Core i7 CPU and high performance GPU.

Matrix Display technology, HDMI 1.4 interface supports up to 4Kx2K resolution.
Use HDMI output on EIZO FlexScan EV2736W with 2560x1400 resolution.
And could still use VGA output to ASUS MX279H display with 1920x1080 resolution.

 

[windwithme]

Besides GE60 built in 15.6" FHD resolution panel, user could still output separated screen on 2 more high resolution monitors for multi tasks works, for example,
use left side monitor for internet searching, right side to watch favor movies, and use GE60 monitor to play games or office works. This feature is really convenience.

Battery life present
After 1 hour HD video playback, battery life still over 65%, the overall battery life is over 3 hours,
With this high performance hard ware, the battery life is good ehough.

Conclusion of MSI GE60 2OE
Pros:
1. Cover style is good as a gaming notebook, red sport line make it looks speedy.
2. Used Killer Gaming LAN, enhanced audio boost with AMP and gold flash jack.
3. Dual mSATA3 SSD as Raid0 plus 750GB HDD makes real fast system and good capacities on data.
4. With 1920x1080 Full HD matted panel, it's comfortable for gaming or high quality video/movies.
5. Keyboard by Steelseries with blue backlit, Cooler Boost for higher thermal performance.
6 Matrix Display technology, HDMI supports up to 4Kx2K resolution, we could see that 2560x1440 is good when testing.

Cons:
1. The touch pad for Windows 8 was floating, it takes time to used to it.
2.Intel Haswall platform comes with higher temperature, recommend to add on more pipeline to reduce the heat faster.
3. The glare A side cover looks good, but easy to scratch when using.

Performance Rated:★★★★★★★★★☆ 89/100
Material Rated: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 87/100
Specification Rated:★★★★★★★★★☆ 88/100
ID Design Rated: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100
Cost/Value Rated: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 80/100

The latest version of MSI GE60 with Haswall paltform comes with better CPU performance.
The most improved part is HD4600 3D perfornamce, 3D tests comes 2x faster than last generation UMA graphics.
But the higher temperature on new platform, it's a challenge for all the PC and NB brands to design their thermal solution.
The thermal design of GE60 is better than many notebooks, so the full loading temperature is still acceptable.

This year MSI offered more type of gaming notebooks, also improve the features and material design a lot.
Especially for the thermal module, better sound quality, Killer LAN, Steelseries keyboard and FHD matted panels is better for gaming market.
Since the price range of GE60 only belongs to middle level market, but the performance is about 80% compare to GT series, so the Cost/Value rate is higher.

MSI GE60 comes with different segment and spec., this time we took higher level one to make benchmarks.
It will be cheaper if there is no SSD inside, just depends on user's consideration to choose.
Many consumer notebooks at same price range is only workable for Gaming, the GE60 maybe is a little bit higher price,
but compare to other brands of this level, this still comes with better C/P rate.
MSI also launched 14 inch gaming GE40 and ultra gaming GS70 slim gaming notebook, that will brings more choice for different gamers or users.
The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments

 

[crazylegs]

Great review

And very nice too, now where did I put my Piggy bank again!