Technical characteristics
CPU: Intel Core i5-460M (2.53 GHz, L3-Cash 3 MB) * RAM: 2x 2 GB DDR3-1066 MHz * Video card: AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5870, 1 GB GDDR5 (700/4000 MHz GPU/VRAM) * Screen: 15.6 inches (1366×768), LED backlight * Hard disk: 500 GB (7200 rpm) * Optical disks drive: DVD ± RW DL * Sound: Support High Definition, two speakers, subwoofer, microphone, support S/PDIF * Wireless modules: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + edr * Basic connectors: 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, GBLAN, ESATA, Audio * Battery: lithium-ion, 7800 mAh * Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit * Other: Cardrider, 2 MP camera, keyboard with a digital block * Dimensions: 39,6×26.9×5.5 cm * Weight: 3.5 kg * The price of December 2010: 46,000 rubles
Gaming laptops MSI -Frequent guests on the pages of our magazine, and all due to the fact that the manufacturer puts very reasonable price tags on them. For example, today for 46,000 rubles MSI offers to buy a 15.6-inch laptop GX660 With Core i5 And HD 5870. What kind of car is this and why it costs so much – now we will figure it out.
Change of image
By tradition, let's start with design. The last three years in MSI have used the same case: correct forms, black, red inserts. The design did not look bad, but I was tired of seeing the same thing from year to year. The design of the GX660 is designed from scratch.
This time, MSI got some unimaginable game monster: not a single right corner, an intricate stamping on everything that is possible, and the backlight along the perimeter. One cover of which is: it is completely made of black glossy plastic, below is a decorative insert “under the carbon”, four stamped lines converge in the center, and in the middle the MSI logo burns in white color.
Inside the laptop is no less impressive: a full -sized keyboard with a separate digital block, an impressive touchpad, framed by plastic under metal. In the center, right under the screen, a healthy button for turning on in the form of a medieval shield is also with white backlight. Touch buttons diverge on both sides of it. The picture is completed by two healthy speakers, surrounded by red lines.
And, of course, the most important thing is the backlight. We counted the seven light sources. Three stand on the lid (one strip near the hinges and two on the sides of the display), four more on the front of the laptop. All of them burn with a muffled orange color and flicker to the beat of music, and the strips on the sides of the screen also display the volume level.
But the most pleasant thing in all this is high -quality assembly. No creaks, backlash or shocking the screen. They made it in good faith https://playojo-gb-casino.co.uk/.
Look and listen
MSI GX660 is available in different configurations. We turned out to be the simplest-GX660-242. A conventional TN mature with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 was used to display this model. It’s not worth it to turn your nose – the screen turned out to be good. MSI abandoned the glossy coating, but the contrast of the display and color rendering at the height. Of course, there are problems with the angles of the view: it deviated 45 degrees – and half the screen is no longer visible, but to watch the film in the company of a couple of friends, enough, and even during the game of distortion it is not at all noticeable. But without a glossy coating you can work even in bright light – no glare.
Sound in GX660 plague. The location of the speakers and the configuration of the sound field for MSI were calculated by the engineers of the company Dynaudio. These are professionals in the world of audio, two columns of this company cost 25,000 rubles. Of course, in the world of laptops, the loud names of acoustics producers are a common thing, but often there is no further logo on the lid and mention in the press release. With MSI GX660 everything is different.
There are three speakers in this laptop: two above the keyboard and one, low -frequency, on the bottom. According to MSI, Dynaudio specialists did a great job on calculating the acoustics of the corps and the location of the speakers and achieved the perfect balance. According to the company, more than 1200 hours were spent on setting up and testing in each frequency range, and not in vain – the sound of the GX660 amazing. Perhaps this is the first laptop on our memory, on which it is really nice to listen to music, watch movies and play. It sounds so cool that I can’t even believe.
Dedicated to writers
The keyboard for GX660 MSI engineers spied on competitors. It is an island type here – each button stands at a short distance from the neighboring. Until recently, such keyboards used mainly Sony And Apple ; Today they are found in almost all companies.
You will have to get used to such a keyboard: it is difficult to print on it, you need to exactly get on each key. But in games – no problems. Buttons are so well felt that it is simply impossible to confuse them.
The touchfall of the touchpad is large, for a 15.6-inch display it is enough with a margin. The working area is limited by the frame, so the finger does not fly out. The location is standard for all laptops with a full -sized digital block: the touchpad is slightly shifted to the left, as it is centered on the width of the main keyboard unit, and not in the width of the case. It is convenient to type text, but in games the hand on the machine reaches to the center of the laptop. Buttons are unsuccessfully located: instead of separate keys, MSI put a swing. It looks beautiful, but it is uncomfortable to work, because at the place of connection of the swing buttons it is not coincided and a distinct click is obtained only around the edges.
Connect
MSI GX660 pleases with a good set of ports. Previously, engineers managed to put only a pair of USB and one USB/esata-combo on a laptop, but here they corrected. Two USB 3 are located on the left side of the GX660.0 (!), one usb 2.0, cardrider, as well as a rare expansion port of ExpressCard/54 today. The right line is slightly poorer: only one USB, audio ports and writing DVD drive. All other MSI connectors carried out to the back of the laptop – there are GBLAN, VGA, HDMI, ESATA, a hole for the Kensington castle and entrance for charging. We liked this layout. What you need (mouse, flash drive) is always at hand; The fact that it is connected once for the entire time of work (external monitor, charging, Internet cable)-away.
In addition to LAN, there are two more means of communication in the GX660: the Wi-Fi module with protocol support up to 802.11n and Bluetooth 2 module.1 with edr. But for some reason the popular WIMAX or 3G did not turn out that it was somehow strange for a top laptop.
Only touch
A number of sensory buttons are placed above the GX660 keyboard, which are hanged by very useful functions (listed from left to right).
- Programmable key "P1". You can assign any action or the launch of the program on it.
- TURBO activation button, proprietary MSI technology, which slightly increases the frequency of the processor and video card (the frequency growth of our Core i5-460M was 133 MHz).
- The “Cooler Booster” function launch button, which accelerates the cooling system to the full power. The laptop roars like a wounded beast, but at the same time it becomes cold as ice.
- An extremely useful button for players, turning off the Windows key on the keyboard.
- The key-inclusion and shutdown keys to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules.
- ECO button, switching operating modes of laptop.
- The backlight shutdown key along the perimeter of the laptop.
Iron
Well, now about the most interesting – about the iron filling. The laptop is based on chipset Intel PM55 Express – A new platform, designed specifically for mobile processors Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3. In fact, this is a copy of the desktop Intel P55. The functions of the North Bridge are built into the processor, and the southern chip is responsible for the operation of hard drives, USB and eight PCIE lines.
The system is running Intel Core i5-460m. This is a dual-core processor with a frequency of 2.53 GHz with 3 MB L3-Kash and the support of Hyper-Threading technology. Also, the DDR3-Mapy-Mapy and 16 PCIE lines are built into the crystal, which ensure the operation of discrete graphics.
In the GX660 there is the fastest mobile fee AMD – Mobility Radeon HD 5870 , although it is better not to compare it with a desktop top of it. Exactly half remained from the adult HD 5870: 800 stream processors, 40 texture blocks and 16 rasterization engines. The processor frequency is 700 MHz, and 1 GB GDDR5 is 4000 MHz.
RAM in GX660 – 4 GB, a hard drive of 500 GB is allotted for data storage. It was divided into two parts in MSI. One with the installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit , can be used to install games and programs, another – for storage of films, music and photos.
With this configuration, the laptop was surprisingly quiet. MSI made such a powerful cooling system of copper heat -conducting tubes that the fan does not even need to strain: it spins at minimal speeds and does not bother anyone. If suddenly outside the window there will be +40 ° C and the passive will stop cope with, then it will be possible to press a special button on the case, and the fan will unwind to the maximum speed. He will roar at the same time as a vacuum cleaner, but to cool is excellent.
Table 1
Synthetic tests
PCMARK05
CPU Memory HDD Overall
7138 5583 6702 7833
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0
FPS Overall
9.6 242
Table 2
Game tests (personnel per second)
Settings 1366×768
Devil May Cry 4 (DX10)
High, AF 16X 114.42
High, AF 16X, AA 4X 102.18
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
High, AF 16X 51.3
High, AF 16X, AA 4X 36.5
Aliens vs. Predator (DX11)
High, AF 16X 34.2
Lost Planet 2 (DX11)
High, AF 16X 24.3
Real computer
We tested a laptop as an adult computer: there was synthetics, and DX10-, and DX11-games. Unfortunately, we could not start 3DMark Vantage -For some reason, the benchmark could not determine the permission of the monitor and constantly gave out a mistake. But his brother, PCMARK05 , worked as it should: the laptop scored decent 7833 points in it. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 I also went without any problems, however, local beauties showed at a speed of 9.6 fps.
Everything was smooth with games. The maximum display resolution is 1366×768, so you can twist the settings to the limit. IN Resident Evil 5 And Devil May Cry 4 the laptop issued 51.3 and 114.42 FPS, respectively. DX11-GGRs did not bother him either: Lost Planet 2 worked at a speed of 24.3 fps, and Aliens vs. Predator showed 34.2 fps that for a laptop – a decent result.
Scot
As we already wrote, MSI GX660-242 costs 46,000 rubles. This is a very democratic price for a computer of such a configuration: analogues from Asus , Toshiba or Dell with a similar filling will cost 20-30 thousand rubles more. Of course, our MSI GX660-242 has a weak display: 1366×768 pixels-this is not enough. However, by adding 3000 rubles, you can buy an older model, for example GX660-245 with a resolution of 1920×1080.
* * *
We worked with the GX660 for almost a month, and parting with it was very offensive. This is a really great car for all occasions. The most powerful filling does not limit the choice of games, a capacious battery holds a laptop for almost three hours in office mode and about an hour in the game. At the same time, the GX660 is not too heavy: along with the power supply and the battery – about 4 kg. And a five -year guarantee – a pleasant bonus. In a word, GX660 is the "Choice of the Editor".
Pros:
- Powerful filling
- reasonable price
- Attractive design
- Convenient keyboard
- Stunning sound
- Good cooling
- Five -year guarantee
Cons:
- Low screen resolution
- Small hard drive volume