Introduction

If one year ago somebody told us we could buy a laptop at ~€1000 capable of running the latest games, we would not believe it. Today we have the pleasure to test one such notebook, although it has been on the market for a few months now, the competition in the price bracket remains stiff.

The MSI GX600 Performance notebook comes with plenty of multimedia features as well as a gaming orientated GPU (8600M GT) and features a unique turbo button. Before we delve into the specifics of this gem, let’s take first look at the 15.4” notebook:



The transparent piece of cloth serves to protect the screen from getting damaged by the keys on the keyboard, when transporting the laptop. MSI urges to re-use this cloth when moving about.

After removing that cloth you have access to the power button to boot the system for the first time, let’s see what lies under the hood.

Specifications

Black (shiny)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz

Memory: 2x Slots DDR2, both occupied by 2x1Gb Modules

Chipset: Intel PM965

Screen Size: 15.4” Glare

Resolution: WXGA 1280x800

Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT 512Mb (up to 768 TurboCache)

Hard Disk: SATA 250Gb 5400rpm

Optical Drive: Dual Layer CD/DVD Burner

Card-Reader: SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro

Webcam: 1.3 MPixel

Speakers: Integrated

Connectivity: 1Gbps LAN, WLAN up to 300Mbit/s (IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n), 56Kbps Modem, Bluetooth

Mouse: Touchpad

Ports: 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x FireWire,1 x RJ-45,1 x RJ-11, 1 x HDMI, 1 x VGA,1 x TV-Out,1 x Line-Out, 1 x Expresscard 54,1x eSATA

Battery: 6-Cell Lithium Lion

Weight: 2.8Kg

Dimensions: 358x32x259mm

Extra’s: Mouse & Backpack

Operating System Preinstalled: Windows Vista Home Premium

Warranty: 24 Months

Notice in the specs that MSI includes a gaming (wired) mouse which allows for real-time DPI adjustment, and also a fancy blue backpack. The photo below courtesy of notebookreview.


Please note that in the photo the headset is NOT included with the GX600 Performance. The higher end “GX600 Extreme” includes the headset.

Let us take a closer look at the package contents and the GX600P ->

GX600P Up Close

The GX600 Performance is a compact notebook, and not a desktop replacement, the 15.4” display allows the total size to remain diminutive. With a 6-Cell battery the overall weight is not exaggerated, slightly under 3kg.

MSI chose for a piano black finish for their design, and while it looks very good, it attracts thumbprints easily. They do include a cloth to remove those smudges...



The top panel is very reflective, in the middle there is a fancy red MSI logo:


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Looking at the front of the GX600 you can see line-out, microphone and headphone connectors, on the left is the memory card reader; and slightly higher is the latch for the screen.


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The right side of the laptop has most of the in/out connections, from left to right: PCMCIA slot,eSATA, MCX Antenna (not used here), Firewire 400, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI, Video-Out, VGA out, Power Plug.


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The left side features Kensington lock, RJ45, RJ11, 2x USB2.0 and the DVD +R DL writer.


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The backside features the exhaust vent for cooling, and provisions for another Kensington lock.


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A quick look inside next ->

A look inside

MSI GX600 did not make if difficult to service the laptop, you can swap out the hard drive and memory, only thing you need is a screwdriver and a bit of patience.

While there is a large sticker over on the backside warning you that “warranty voided if sticker is tampered with”, we checked with MSI who told us that warranty is not voided if you change memory/HDD.


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The battery pack is easy to remove and rather compact, while it’s not lightweight bringing a second one when on a long trip, will not take much room in your suitcase/backpack.



The hard drive is standard 2.5” size, a Western Digital 250Gb SATA model:



The other flap reveals the CPU, chipset and GPU area, as well as give you access to the memory modules. Two large flat heat pipes transport heat from the CPU and GPU towards the rear of the laptop where a rather small cools a set of copper fins down.



The memory modules are cascaded, the GX600P comes with 2x1Gb, you can upgrade to more if needed in the future, the laptop takes DDR2-667 SO-DIMM, which is quite affordable nowadays.



Finger Prints

An exaggerated illustration of the thumbprints issue on the piano black finish:



It takes a few seconds to clean up, if you have the cloth in reach:



Enough about smudges and inside bits, time to open the lid and take a closer look at the keyboard ->

The GX600 Keyboard

MSI caters this laptop for the gaming crowd, the inclusion of the wired game-mouse already makes this message quite clear, the keyboard is adapted for gaming comfort while retaining a maximum of keys.

You get a full sized numeric pad, and special attention to the wasd (or zqsd in azerty) area.


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The blue function key allows for quick access to increase/decrease screen brightness and sound level, put the PC in “sleep” mode, select video output as well as disable the onboard touchpad (this came in very handy!).



The touchpad is quite sensitive and consist for two areas, the left side works as normal touchpad while the right side with the two arrows allows you to quickly scroll up/down in a document/webpage. The left/right buttons are large and responsive, if you find yourself without an external mouse, the touchpad will certainly work adequately, it’s sad they didn’t opt to include the “mini-joystick” in the middle of the keyboard, as found on some business laptop models from HP/Dell/IBM.

As mentioned you get a nice ZQSD (WASD) marked with red letters on the keyboard:



However if you are more a fan of using the arrows on the keyboard, you’re out of luck, their size is ridiculously small. Also suffering is the enter key, which is missing the top half, this isn’t a change for the best if you plan to type a lot of text on the onboard keyboard.



At the top right of the keyboard area you’ll find the Turbo button, which boosts CPU speed, next to it is a “hot start” key, which proves its importance when you start manually overclocking the CPU. At the left side there are the power button, webcam and wireless/Bluetooth hotkeys. The red racing grill is situated at both ends and helps cooling too, but we’re guessing it’s there more for looks.



When powered on the LEDs at the bottom right light up, in function of what is accessed, and what is enabled, the lights will change.



A look at the screen, noise and connectivity next ->

15.4” Screen

The standard size of most laptops now is 15.4”, the glossy screen is popular too, so it’s no surprise to see this type of LCD panel used on MSI’s mainstream GX600 notebook. Available with different resolutions, the basic models come at 1280x800.

This average resolution is a mixed blessing; while it reduces screen estate and forces you to scroll quite a bit, the lower resolution allows the onboard VGA play games at native resolution without too much struggle. While a 8600M GT can hardly be considered high end, it does stand a good chance for providing playable frame rates in most games at the 15.4” native resolution of 1280x800.

Taking a closer look at the glossy screen, we took snapshots at different viewing angles. The left/right angle is quite wide; up/down is less impressive, so make sure to have the screen at the correct angle to get the best picture.


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At the top of the screen is a 1.3MPixel webcam, this one can be disabled/enabled by use of the hotkey on the motherboard, MSI did not provide any software for the webcam, but the driver worked perfectly under Windows Vista and MSN Messenger recognized it without issue.



Noise Reading

In a quiet room late at night with ambient noise level slightly below 36dBA we held our dBA meter over the front of the laptop ; when running idle (web browsing/movie) we got this result :



At ~4dBA over ambient the laptop’s fan was noticeable but not very disturbing. When under load (gaming/benchmark/heavy applications) the noise level was much higher though:



At ~12dBA over ambient the fan in the GX600 is definitely very noisy; luckily the fan scales back quickly once the CPU is idle again, so after a heavy game session the fan will become quiet not long after.

HDMI Test

Using the onboard Geforce 8600M GT, through NVIDIA control panel we could set the native resolution for 720p and connect a Panasonic Plasma Panel over HDMI, image quality was perfect, and playing high definition content was as good looking as directly from PS3/XBOX.



One noticeable downside though is the absence of sound over HDMI; you need to separately connect audio from the laptop to your home theater.

Standard OS and Preloaded Software

Like many other companies, MSI is shipping their laptops with Windows Vista only. They bundled the GX600 with Vista Home Premium, which should be enough for almost all users and gamers, unless you need office connectivity features, but seeing as this is a gamer’s laptop, Home Premium which comes with the fancy Aero interface enabled, should suffice. If you decide to install Windows XP, you can find all the device drivers here on the MSI site.

MSI pre-configures the 250Gb into two partitions, a system and data partition, this is most useful as one of the system recovery options allows you to image the C: drive with a fresh copy, returning the system to factory default, but keeping the data on the d:\ drive (second partition). We applaud MSI for including both a full system recovery option (through DVD) as well as this clean OS install options which only replaces data on the c:\ drive.

Recovering the system partition is a very quick process, in less than 10 minutes you have a fresh install of the OS, ready to use.



Something to keep in mind for end-users, the default Users data folder from Vista is currently located on the c:\ drive. MSI did not configure this to be on the D:\ drive, which is shame. Remedying this oversight is easy, just create a new folder on your D:\ drive, and drag&drop all the data folders (my documents, my music, my downloads, my pictures, etc) to this D:\ drive, this will redirect all paths to this new location, and applications will store they data on the D:\ drive now by default, instead of the C:\ drive. If you reload your system partition again, you won’t loose data, at all!



MSI preloads the Vista install with a free copy Microsoft Works, this application can work with most Office document formats, making it an ideal light work tool. You also get a copy of Norton Internet Security, we like AVG better, a smaller memory footprint, less CPU intensive, and offers excellent protection. Take a look at the “Programs and Features” screenshot above to get an overview of the other applications installed by default.

Overall system clutter remains minimal, no useless shortcuts or bugware installed, MSI has taken an effective minimalist approach, including shareware of the popular Winrar, Acrobat Reader, and a full version of Cyberlink DVD tools. Nice!

Operating temperatures



Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 runs at 2.2Ghz stock speeds, while it’s at 65nm and it’s a mobile version, at this speed it needs effective cooling to keep from throttling. Laptop CPU can handle more heat than the desktop version, so let’s see how high it will climb at a room temperature of ~22°C.



The CPU reaches close to 80°C under full load, but no stability issues, good news. Measuring the keyboard area with IR temp gun temperatures never went higher than ~40°C on some areas near the top, while the lower area was at a more comfortable ~30°C.



With the Turbo mode enabled the CPU will be overclocked as the FSB is increased:



Using the same stress test we measure the maximum temperature reached:



At 2.6Ghz there is definitely more strain on the cooling system, as temp increase by 4-5°C under full load. The system remained stable running in overclocked mode, even after several hours of stress testing. We left 3DMark06 looping overnight, without problems!

Benchmark Time!

Laptop performance can easily be bottlenecked by several factors, depending on what application you used most. MSI tried to cover all bases, by providing a sufficiently fast CPU, which can be overclocked, 2Gb of system memory and a decent 3D GPU. The large 250GB HDD is nice and the choice of brand and product is not a mistake, the Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS is one of the best 2.5” drives on the market today.

We’ll show two results for each benchmark, as you might have guessed, one is without Turbo mode, the other with.




Vista internal performance benchmark gives the GX600 a nice rating of 4.7~5.0 overall which is far from bad for a notebook, there are even many desktops which score worse!




3DMark06 score of 3745~3823 is slightly below the 8600 GT desktop equivalent, but not by much, 8600 GT with 2.8Ghz C2D scores 4463, or approximately ~16% slower… and this for a laptop!

Moving on to a CPU benchmark, Cinebench R10:




The T7500 is a Dual Core CPU and this pays off in the Cinebench R10 software.

We tried a variety of games on the GX600, ranging from 2D lightweights like Transport Tycoon Deluxe, to Steam and Team Fortress 2. Quake 3 Arena, Oblivion, and many others. The overall tendency is to play around with the in-game settings to find a balance between FPS and IQ, keeping the native 1280x800 resolution for best result.

Also as suspected, the Turbo mode only helps when you are using CPU intensive tasks, in gaming the 2.2Ghz CPU is more than powerful enough to be a bottleneck. Unreal Tournament 3 ran at an average of ~35FPS with medium quality setting at 1280x800, overclocking the CPU did not increase the FPS. The only way we could get more out of the GPU was to overclock… ->

Overclocking

Near the end of our three week evaluation period with the MSI GX600 we reloaded the clean Vista OS image and delved into the BIOS of this laptop, where we found manual overclock settings for the FSB.

Starting of slowly we increase the FSB in steps of 10Mhz, Vista booted up without a hitch, stress tests passed without problem. In the end we maxed out the BIOS setting of 260FSB, resulting in a stable speed of… 2851Mhz!



We did not experiment with GPU overclocking much, but suspect that for gaming performance a GPU overclock would benefit more than a CPU overclock. Instead of the Turbo button overclocking the CPU, it would maybe more useful to link it to the GPU speed and set it to a maximum overclock.

Conclusive Thoughts

After using the MSI GX600 for an extended period of time, we can draw our final conclusions. The included backpack proved useful, offering enough room the laptop, accessories and a few documents, books as well. The size of the power adapter however is a bit on the large side, taking up precious space.

Price wise it’s hard to find a similar configured laptop with T7500 CPU, 250Gb HDD and 8600M GT, available for as low as €959 (Extreme Edition!) ($999). MSI GX600 unique Turbo feature will show a performance difference in benchmarks but in real world applications and games the extra CPU speed hardly has an impact; that is unfortunate as the premise for this functionality was promising. Since most games are video card limited, an automatic overclock of the 8600M GT would yield a more noticeable effect, however we think the yields here might be less than spectacular, the Core 2 Duo is known for its scalability, hence the easy overclock on the 2.2Ghz CPU.

Before we end the review, let’s discuss battery life, it’s worth mentioning that a gaming laptop & long battery life don’t go hand in hand, so anybody expecting hours of gameplay without a power plug nearby will be disappointed. Under heavy gaming the battery lasts approximately 1 hour, when browsing the web or doing office work, the system will last almost 2 hours. Compared to many “office laptops” which manage to go for 4 hours or more, these numbers are ridiculously low. But none of those laptops play Team Fortress 2 fluently either.

Overall we were impressed by the GX600, good build quality, useful extras and excellent performance for the price. If you’re in the market for a compact gaming laptop, the GX600 series from MSI should definitely be on your shortlist!

MSI GX600P Recommended for


We thank Chantal from MSI for lending us the test unit, until next time!