MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GT70 0NC-008US;9S7-176212-008 17.3-Inch Laptop

I have this unit from day one when it released, this notebook is good!!!! With latest quad core i7 and 3GB 670M, 1080P, … especially onboard audio: Dynaudio speaker and amped earphone jack. WOW! is the only thing I can say when I play game and watch movie.

Pro:
Intel quad core
Geforce 670M “3GB”
1080P screen
HDMI
Dynaudio speaker
Amped headset jack
Killer NIC
Programable color gaming KB

Con:
So far no, maybe kind of big. But, for a 17″ high-end gaming NB, who cares…. haha

Thanks MSI, this is a good, solid, powerful, sexy unit

For the price, this is a really good deal for a gaming laptop. I use it for work and run my work OS in a VM. This thing has more than enough power to handle anything I throw at it including running multiple virtual servers in my lab. One thing to note, it did not come equiped to handle VMs, the BIOS on these machines is extremely locked down and MSI had not set the setting to VT-x to “on” in the default BIOS, they have since resolved that issue with an update. Also, getting into the laptop from the bottom side is a little “iffy.” The back black you have to take off to get access to the hard drives and second set of RAM is extremely flimsy. You have to be very careful with it. Also, there is a misleading sticker on the back that indicates if you remove the back plate it will void your warranty. This is not true as I have confirmed it with MSI tech support.

I’m a graphic designer and casual gamer, so I was looking for a laptop that could handle graphics well without totally shattering my budget. This laptop does exactly that. I’ve been totally thrilled with it from the moment I got it.

Performance:
It had a very easy setup – some bloatware, but not too much. I downloaded a few games to test it out, and it handled everything admirably. Skyrim, Borderlands, CoD:MW3, and Deus Ex: HR all ran without a hitch, even with other performance-intensive programs running in the background. I have the Adobe CS5 collection, and so far I’ve been able to run as many of those programs as I wanted simultaneously without any problems or slowdowns whatsoever. The system runs very cool – I played Deus Ex for between 6-7 hours and had no temperature problems. There’s a fan control on the keyboard in case you do need to control your temperature. The high resolution is especially nice for working with Adobe – I have much more desktop space for all the toolbars and menus, while still having large sections of my projects in view. It has a nice sound management system for hooking up to headphones or external speakers. There are plenty of ports available for peripherals. There’s a slight overhang from the keyboard, so if you have a particularly fat flash drive it may be a tight squeeze, but that’s really the only difficulty I foresee.

Aesthetics:
The keyboard is especially nice; has a very good feel. There’s a quick access button for turning the touchpad on/off (very handy for gaming). There’s a glossy bit on the case right around the keyboard that tends to show a lot of scuffs and fingerprints, but the rest of the case has a “brushed” feel and stays pretty clean-looking for the most part. The backlights in the keyboard attract a lot of attention, but they are very useful if you do a lot of work in low light or if you do a lot of gaming. The built-in speakers aren’t TV quality or anything, but they are surprisingly good for a laptop.

The Good:
Performance, graphics, price

The Bad:
Weight – this thing is a beast; if you need something highly portable, think twice

Overall:
Would absolutely recommend this to just about anybody!

I;m very happy with this Computer

Pros:

Very Fast; playing all my games in ultra, SC2 , Mass Effect 3 , Deus Ex HR
Bright Screen
Beautiful Keyboard
Design is gorgeous
All my music software runs smooth with plugins and up to 80 tracks at a time

GREAT!!!

The best laptop for such money!!! Very fast , excellent HD display and lighted keyboard. I f..king glad to be owner of this monster !!! Strongly recommend this product.

A lot has already been said about this great machine, so I will be direct.

Pros:
Very durable
Very fast
Amazing sound
Best keyboard ever, you can cycle through 8 main colors each with 5 subsets, white, and off with 6 varying styles of light
Great display (LED, no glare, very bright)
I like big screens, so I give the excessive size of a pro
Some people say this computer is heavy, but it is only 9 pounds, it isn’t that bad
USB ports actually turn the USB device off like Windows XP used to
5 USB ports
Since I don’t do heavy gaming (just NES and SNES games), this computer will seemingly last for a VERY long time
Does not have Windows 8!!!

Cons:
The 750 GB harddrive is split partitioned for some reason (375 GB and 350 GB)
Being a computer with killer sound, it should have had physical buttons for volume control
Comes with a lot of programs that don’t need to be there like the free trial anti virus garbage
Overclock control panel is not post install, a monitor is preinstalled (it can be removed which is what I did)

Even though there are a number of cons, they are just in my opinion that are trivial that are things that no one seems to pay attention to.

Bottom line, it is a great machine! Get it before Windows 8 becomes the dominant operating system. Anyone who has spent 5 minutes on it would know what I am talking about. Windows 8 is NOT ideal for competent users who do a lot of file management or use their computers for actual work rather than just screwing around.

Design:
This is a stunner, a headturner laptop. I love the design its really better in real life than what you see in the internet. The keyboard is fully customizable just like my old alienware, u can choose a 3 different color and make your keyboard have 3 different color at once and could add some effects on it. The screen has a anti-reflection coating which is good for a gaming laptop. Its is also lighweight (8.6lbs) compared to other gaming laptop in its category.

Performance: Ive been using this laptop as a desktop replacement for 2 months and so far its pretty solid. No crashes whatsoever, everything works out of the box. I use this laptop everyday for like 8-14hrs a day and play games like WoW, dota2, d3 CS, battlefield and more but be sure to have a good cooling pad on it like the coolermaster notepal x2. Overall im inlove with this laptop, If u can afford it, you will surely like it.

I have had this computer for about 6 months, so far I am happier with it’s quality and performance more so than any other computer purchase (for the the price). The only thing I would mention is that the computer it thick. No slim line notebook here. I see this as a good thing, it is very well ventilated, and expect that it will last a long time. The steelseries back lit keyboard is also very cool.

I bought this laptop from Newegg.com since it was cheaper and on sale during the time. The laptop is so light it is amazing. When I opened the box, I saw that the laptop was well sealed and protected from the protected wrap. When I first turned it on, it gave me a couple of problems as to didn’t know that the laptop had a blackout screen button that is touch sensitive on the front panel by the power button. When I turned it back on, the monitor had artifacts on it so I was worried I might of grabbed a defective unit. Well turns out that I just needed to restart the computer. I set everything up and loaded windows flawlessly. So far it runs WoW on max settings, Diablo 3 on Max, and pretty much any game you throw at it. I was able to run BF3 on flawless settings and also CoD4 on 120FPS!!!! The graphics card is a major beast.

I saw that some people are having problems with the swappable graphics card. I suggest you program your software first before opening up. I saw the Intel graphics made my webcam choppy on Yahoo Messenger and Skype so I made both programs to use the Geforce and fixed the problem.

The major downside to this is the warranty sticker on the bottom of the laptop base. If you remove this sticker, your warranty is shot. This means you can’t upgrade your memory, hard drive, or being able to clean it.

I suggest you buy a accidental warranty to back your warranty up if you are going to upgrade it. The stick on the back of the laptop says if removed or snapped, it is considered a voided warranty according to MSI so please be careful on this.

Overall my best 5 features:

1. Swappable Graphics for better battery life (Gave me 5 1/2 hours of battery life on Intel graphics and low power settings on battery)
2. Fan Control Button which is awesome.
3. Turbo Button for quick overclock. Made my 120FPS CoD4 to run a lot better on turbo mode
4. Very lightweight. Best gaming laptop to date that is not heavy.
5. Sound quality is at its best and never had an Amped up headphone jack before and wow! I hear the difference between my G78s Asus laptop and my new MSI Laptop. Very nice!!

Overall It is well worth to get. I bought an extra battery for this thing with no problems so parts are there to order if you need an extra battery or power cord.

I’m not going to go over what has been mentioned here, but I went ahead and bought it elsewhere. I found a setting in the bios called i-charger. This will let the laptop charge devices from its USB2.0 ports, EVEN WHILE OFF AND UNPLUGGED!

Oh, and bios updates are useful (they enabled Intel-VTx) and they already have some Windows8 Drivers out…so…yea!