The laptop itself is a stylish looking silver brushed version . MSI also has a black version available to suit ya colour needs. No funky colours though, just classic stuff that suits most demands. The specifications on this Intel based laptop are quite impressive.

 

 

 

Intel Mobile Sandybridge CPU : our test sample was based on a i5 2310M CPU running at 2.1Ghz. Sporting 2 cores and 4 hyperthreaded ones. This should be more than powerfull enough for the most demanding applications. Plus one of the stronger points is the enhanced battery duration. But more on that later on. Four Gigabyte of DDR3 ram, upgradable to max 8GB. For storage MSI opted to equip our review sample with a 500Gb Hitachi drive. Weirdly enough the CX640 has got dedicated graphics via an Nvidia GT 520M 1GB DDR3. I would have expected, that to lower the retail price, MSI would have opted to use the integrated Intel 3000 HD graphics of the 2310M CPU. Monitor on duty is a 15.6 inch High Definition one running at a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.

 

 

 

 

You either have the choice between a what MSI refers to as a Super Multi DVD writer or a combo Blue ray drive Now let's have a look at the connectors, buttons on the sides. The Power on Button gives a flashy green glow once powered up.

 

 

 

Two USB 3.0 ports are standard,  for maximum tranfer rates of large chunks of data, and a HDMI port. The jack for the Power supply, a 10/100/1000 LAN port and the VGA connector to hook up other monitors, beamers etc...

 

 

 

The necessary LEDs to allow you to monitor which function or device is enabled. From left to right : Light Sensor indicator: The monitor has the cool function to automatically adjust brightness and power draw in function of the ambient light. Battery Led indicator, HD/Optical drive indicator. Wireless RF function Led and then the Caps and Num Lock Led indicators. The right picture shows two more USB 2.0 ports and the in and out jack for sound.

 

 

 

High end recessed speakers are used, allowing a quite enjoyable sound experience. The numerous function keys can also be spotted. 4 modes can be quickly selected via the Function keys : Gaming, entertainment, Office and Battery saving mode If you look closer on the right picture you will see the Time Stamp logo. When pressed above, the three little green leds light up.

 

   

 

 

 

What it all boils down to is that the Timestamp function allows you for a quick backup of your systems image. Look at it as a quick windows restore function not by Windows our aftermarket software. Advantage is that it is pretty quick, though not always so fast as the marketing slides show you.

 

It's pretty easy to use and could be a life savour in case of a virus or sortlike.

Another data protection option is MSI's Rock -Solid protection. No need for extra explenation, the below image tells it all.

 

 

 

On the inside we spot the two beefy heatpipe coolers, one for the CPU and one for the dedicated Nvidia 520M GPU. The two 2Gb dimms of DDR3 can be swapped for 2 times 4 Gb dimms.

 

 

 

 

The Wireless RF is of the Atheros 802.11 B/G/N type, allowing for fast transfer of packets to and from the internet. Storage is provided by a S-ATA 500Gb Hitachi drive. More than appropriately sized and silently spinning at 5400RPM. The battery is an  10.8 volt 4400 mAh one. An 8 cell battery is optional for more power and extra battery duration.

 

 

 

 

 

Comparing this laptop is quite hard, since Madshrimps was not really into portable stuff. So we don't have a huge database to fall back on. But we have to start somewhere, so the MSI CX640 has to go head to head with my own Acer 5750 laptop. The latter having a beefier Mobile SandyBridge based CPU, retailing at a higher price too. So it will be partly comparing apples to oranges. Though we found some nice results in the below tests.

 

Starting off with Superpi 1M and Wprime32. Clear win for the faster Acer CPU. Not even the best designed motherboard ram combo can make up for them extra 200mhz.

 

 

Similar results in the heavier SuperPi 32M and 1024WPrime test. Overal speed rules. It's raw Mhz that count here. again as stated in the intro, apples with oranges comparison.

 

 

Cinebench , the same cup of tea. Time to quickly go to what we found the interesting stuff...

 

 

Even though the PCmark05 looks similar to the above results where the 300mhz extra of the beefier i2410 CPU thrash it's little i2310 brother. There's more to it...

 

 

The HD speed is well up to scratch, even outperforming the data storage setup of the more powerfull Acer laptop. XP Startup, HDD general usage test and the HDD Virus scan are MSI territory. Imagine the total outcome with a similar specced CPU as the more expensive Acer 5750 laptop.

 

 

Also due to the added GT520M videocard, the Acer laptop get's a rough ride with it's 3000HD iGPU in the 3D tests. Though the 520M is not a stellar performer, but it could be the difference between playing a game at low resolution with just enough FPS, then when using the Intel solution. Let's see how she fares in Futuremarks 3Mark06 and Ubisofts Far Cry 2

 

 

A decent improvement over the integrated Intel HD3000. Though don't expect miracles from the MSI GT520M videocard. I also tried overclocking it, though the scores went down in stead of up. Could be temperature or voltage related (instability). No Mafia II, Crysis II tests as they ran too jerky on both of the setups. Though Far Cry 2 was playable when selecting DirectX9 and Low settings for all detail levels. The HD3000 however dipps often at the 20FPS mark, the GT520 keeps it fluid most of the times.

 

 

 

 

Another nicely result was the thermal performance of this laptop. The heatpipe design is very well executed as it cools not only the CPU but also the GPU via the same fan. Keep in mind that the Acer has got a slightly hotter CPU running ( 2300mhz vs 2100Mhz )

 

For the battery test, I downloaded Imtecs Battery Mark. While stressing the 4 cores at 100%, the system shut down after 190 mins of pure torture. The output file mentioned "estimated Windows battery life" would be around the 5 hour mark. Though when using the laptop for surfing ,I breached 4 hours easily, but never 5 hours. So I have some doubts about the used program in general. The other test passed flawlessly : playing one of my favourite DVD movies, "Der untergang", was no problem. Totalling 160 minutes of play time and still got close to 25% battery left. How eco is that :)

 

 

To prove you this MSI laptop is far from a slouch. We tweaked the OS a bit ( though by tweaking, read more as deinstalling unused programs and disabling the virus scanner, setting affinity etc... nothing major in fact ) And we obtained some nice results for the MSI laptop team. As usual these notebooks are zero overclockable, so you have to make the best of the situtation.

 

HWbot Superpi 1M score : First spot

 

 

HWbot Superpi 32M score : First spot

 

 

HWbot Pifast score : First spot

 

 

HWbot Wprime 32M score : First spot

 

 

HWbot Wprime 1024M score : First spot

 

 

HWbot PCMark05 score : First spot

 

I'm fairly new to laptops, I bought my first one this year (the Acer 5750). And was already kindly surprised by the low street price ( 590 euros ) and good performance of it. The MSI CX640 is targeted at those that don't want a lot of bells and whistles. Just something that works out of the box and does the job. Not for the gamer orientated crowd, but just those that want to surf the internet, do their spreadsheets, word documents and eg occasional photoshopping.

 

   

 

The silver design is nice and looks refreshing compared to the most dull black laptops I see floating around. Ofcourse you can order a black one too. The laptop was pretty easy to work with, feels responsive at all times and the battery duration beats most older laptops without breaking a sweat. Over 4 hours is easily achievable, browsing, listening to music, watching a movie. It's quite impressive, to say the least.

 

 

And what is absolutely cool is it's retail price. You can have the latest Intel CPU technology, bundled with 4gb of DDR3 ram, a fast 500GB HD and a 15.6 screen for just 480 euros. If that's still a bit out of your league then you can opt for the CR version ( lacking the dedicated Nvidia GPU ) for even less. All I can say is amasing value for money. This is way faster then a netbook,has more storage and overal better functionality. Okay you have to pay a small premium, but this laptop is worth every penny. It's even a nice upgrade for most older laptops as the Sandybridge technology is not only fast in the desktop segment. On top of that it's very low power demanding.

 

Due to the good daily performance, long battery duration and very competitive street price I award the MSI CX640 the Madshrimps Value Award

 

 

Pros :

• Decent overal performance
• Long battery endurance
• Fast Hard drive
• Great street price

 

Cons :

 

• zero overclockability :p
• I had to give it back :p

 

 

I wish to thank Joran from MSI for the MSI CX640 sample