Ryzeki's MSI GX660R Review

-WORK STILL IN PROGRESS!-

Introduction
Welcome to my review for the MSI GX660R! If you read my past review, you will notice that not too soon ago I was an Asus G51J owner (pretty happy one by the way) and suddenly made the jump for this new MSI.
If some of you even remember, I was kind of against changing my laptop because I felt the jump from GTX260m to HD5870m was not that big.
Boy was I wrong.
And I am very glad about it!

A 15 incher with an ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870? That's the first thing that will pop on most people's heads.
If you research for a bit, you will find that this particular GPU is not only powerful, but it is mostly found on 17inchers because of the heat it can produce.
Naturally, most people would be skeptical to buy a 15.6 inch notebook with such a high end GPU, specially since MSI also has a model with the radeon 5850 and moderate temps.
What I can spoil you right now, before reading further, is the fact that this machine has an absolutely amazing GPU cooling solution.

I got my awesome new laptop from the best resellers out there, GentechPC.
Like my previous experiences with them, my process was smooth and fast.
Ken Lee (a representative of Gentech, which is also a member of this community and is available for anything you need!) helped me throughout the whole process, and kept me updated regarding my order.
Personally, and from experience, Ken and Gentech provide the best experience from resellers I have seen so far in the market.
I heavily recommend them!

Coming back to the review! So what made me change my mind and order this laptop? I wanted a full upgrade in performance, and from what MSI spec'd on this machine, I was sure expecting a lot.
I am glad to say my expectations were blown away.


-Specs as ordered (Changed driver from blu-ray to regular DVD and added IC thermal compound):
CPU: Intel Core i7 Processor 740QM @ 1.73Ghz – 2.93Ghz (IC thermal compound)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Chipset: Intel PM55
Memory: 46B DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz
Screen: 15.6” 1920x1080 (16:9 ratio) WLED backlit AUO15ED screen
Video Card: ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870 1GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 2x 320GB 7200RPM SATA (Pre-Configured in RAID-0)
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
Wireless: Intel WiFi link 1000 BGN 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Autio: 2.1 Sound system by Dynaudio.
Yes, this is WORTH mentioning.
Warranty: 3 years standar factory warranty + first 1 year accidental damage warranty
I/O connection: 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, eSATA, HDMI, S/PDIF, Line in, Line out, Mic in, VGA, Ethernet, card reader, PC Express card slot.


- What's in the Box:
The machine comes in a well designed box, sturdy build and gaming oriented design/logos around.
The contents include the standard manuals and reference guides, along with drivers/software discs, AC adapter and battery.
Sadly this machine does not have any extras in the form a mouse etc, but that hardly matters when you stop to consider what you just bought: One of the most powerful 15 inchers!


-Design and Build Quality
Coming from an Asus G51, I immediately recognized the overall size and chassis resemblance of the Asus G50/G51 series and that isn't exactly bad.
Aesthetics are very nice, with a black to gray glossy finish that thankfully is not as ;dirt magnet; as I thought, probably due to the colors chosen for the palmrest.
Pictures do not give justice to the look of this machine as it looks way more ;serious; in person (with the LEDs off, of course heh).
The Red color around the speakers is actually metallic so it does not stand out tremendously at all, and feels in line with the overall look of the machine.
The only weird thing is the LCD cover which I think it looks weird.
I don't hate it, but I don't particularly like it that much.
At least it is all black and looks less ;Look at me!; without fancy designs etc.

The machine is sturdy.
the built is entirely of plastic, or so it seems.
There isn't much flex, and the whole chassis feels strong.
The only place that seems way weaker and has considerable flex is the cover, but it feels around the same as my G51J.
I think that a support in the mid section of the cover would have made this a bit better but it is not bad at all, nor something to worry about.


- Screen
I know there is some concern with the screen.
Let's get to the facts first.
The screen has mediocre viewing angles, both vertical and horizontal, but vertical angles suffer the most.
What this means is that when you tilt the screen or move it sideways, you will start to notice color distortion.
Additionally, the screen has low contrast compared to other gaming machines.

However, it is very sharp and of quite high resolution.
The brightness settings allow for incredibly bright display, or quite low light viewing.
Using display settings augmenting color saturation, the contrast/image GREATLY improves to a good display, leaving only the low viewing angles as the bad point.

An important note: Viewing angles won't affect you much, the user, as you will most probably see the screen directly to it's sweet spot 99% of the time.
The issue would come when others look at the screen from moderate angles.
When watching the screen from a sweet spot, you will probably start to see colors begin to wash on either the bottom or top depending on the angle.
When gaming this does not affect because the angle is not that prominent, but when watching a movie or something with heavy emphasis in white/dark constrasts, you will notice dark/blacks becoming grayish.
Using the screen at 30% or so brightness (with FN+up/down arrows) in well lit rooms, you will have great colors, ink-like blacks and all, but sadly the viewing angles don't improve that much.

My take? the screen works.
It looks sharp, it is functional, produces decent colors with saturation enabled, and is perfectly bright when used on very bright places/outside.
If screen is VERY important to you, then you will most likely be disappointed.
If not, you will most likely enjoy it for what it is, specially the resolution.
I find it pleasant looking during the day, and only disappointing when playing at night ina darkish room, when the brightness does make the blacks and everything more grayish.

Note: the high brightness does make blacks look grayish when watching the screen in a dark/low light room or area.
When using in normal daylight, blacks are iindeed blacks, and colors look great.


-Keyboard

Build, distribution, material texture are all well implemented.
Typing is easy, keystrokes feel good with just enough feedback to type quickly.
I have noticed a tiny bit of missed key strokes sometimes, but I haven't identified the problem yet.
This is by far one of the best laptop keyboards I have used, wht the keyboard area has little to no flex.
material used and texture allows for a clean looking keyboard all the time.

The downside? it is not backlit.
To be honest, I don't care about it anymore.
When I first heard of the lack of backlit keyboard, I was adamant about it being a significant downgrade, but the look, feel and overall quality of the keyboard allowed me to forget such missing feature.
After using this machine for a while now, I gotta say, I don't even miss it.
It may be that the brightness of the screen help iluminate the keyboard just enough, or realizing that I rarely used the feature before but I honestly don't mind the lack of it.

coming from the Asus G51J, this keyboard provides the same distribution and size but with different texture and little flex.
Keystrokes have more feedback that the Asus keyboard, and are more akin to the G73 keyboard feel.

The flex the keyboard shows is mostly located from the mid section.
I personally don't notice much unless I type and see the keyboard.
Which I don't so at first I didn't know there was flex at all.

basically, it is a keyboard that the only thing preventing it from being perfect, it's the lack of backlit.


-Performance and User Experience:
Stock performance is incredible and on par with your expectations.
The machine performs well in single and multitasks.
Game performance is great thanks to the small bump in CPU and the superb ATi Mobility Radeon HD5870.
Additionally, MSI includes its own version of overclocking functionality with the push of a single button.
This is specially great for those that are afraid of overclocking, as it provides a small performance boost for no cost.

The best feature though, is the capability of fan control, and the turbofan feature.
At the touch of a button, you can summon the maximum speed of you fan to keep things real cool.
When gaming, specially with headphones, you won't even hear the fan that much and it ensures you complete cool temps while gaming.

From the looks of it, the Turbo feature overclocks the CPU to 1.812ghz, so it's a decent bump for a simple button.
Some games seem to gain 1-2fps, some are unaffected, some actually loose 1-2fps of performance.
The reason is still uknown to me.
And personally, I rarely use it.

Gaming is possible on 1920x1080 res, at least from all the games I have tried so far.

Windows Experience Index : 5.9 (slowest is HDD)

These numbers don't mean much.
Even if the laptop is branded as 5.9, all components are fairly stronger on the 7.1+ scale.


3dmark06 stock CPU/GPU(stock drivers): 12746 at 1280x1024.
Divided as following:
SM2.0 5197
SM3.0 6008
CPU 3377


3dmark06 Turbo on, OC 900/1030(Cat 10.8 drivers): 13927 at 1280x1024.
Divided as following:
SM2.0 5663
SM3.0 6708
CPU 3564


3D mark Vantage Turbo On OC 900/1030 Cat 10.8 drivers:
Score P9865
CPU 12046
GPU 9304

Some Game results!

Batman Arkham Asylum
Settings:All highest enabled, vsync triple buffering, 1920x1080
Min: 39fps, max: 60, average: 58fps
comments: Benchmark ran smooth, and gameplay seems and feels very smo