Msi Ge60 0nc

[Mrcrysis2000]

Ok, this is my first review so if there’s anything wrong feel free to b**** :P

 

This Review is broken into a few parts

 

About me

Choosing

The aftermath

The solution

The Verdict

 

Well then where to start? Maybe about me?

 

About me

Ok so my name is Christopher and I live within the UK, Birmingham to be accurate and I’m currently a student at Bournville College and I am a BIG fan of computers, science and Sci-fi I also recently got a MSI GE60 laptop which I will put a link of below. I’m sure there are a million and one different types of reviews of this laptop but the reason I’m making this review is because I have NEVER owned a laptop so I though something that’s different from someone who’s not a laptop user, the reason I’ve got one was because I’m soon to be leaving home and moving to a new city without my beloved PC so the next logical step is a laptop. I’m currently studying A-level in IT soon to be moving to computer science at university. (I think that’s the intro and about me done what’s next ahhh… the choosing)

 

Choosing

Ok so I must of clocked about a week of solid looking on the internet for a laptop I checked the place I work to see if there are any ideas (won’t disclose this in case they get bi*chy) but there was not a lot that kindled my interested there was a Lenovo Y580 which had a very nice bundle of GHz and memory and even graphics to boot I think it was a GT660M. But it was end of line and the only one I could get was the one which sadly was on show and TBH It was bland looking I felt like I worked in a black and white office looking at it so it was kind of a nope from me, although someone else was happy to take it and I’m sure there enjoying it to this day J anyway back on subject. Ahh, yes the laptop well after that I did what any other self-respecting teenager on a budget would do, consult the WWW. I then started to create a folder and a selection of webpages with good laptops on (thanks to Google Chrome for the simple to use favourites function) I had about a few laptops on the look from Ultrabooks, to Convertibles and even the back flipping Lenovo Yoga book looking at all of these It makes you have to sit down and think of your needs as a person.

 

Personally I wanted a machine I can have the confidence to take out my bag without someone in the distance going “Ha look he bought that pile of crap” I wanted a processor to match my requirements so as I’m currently doing animation, and also Visual Basic coding I needed something to process all that quickly with no waiting I wanted a great battery life and also some power under the keyboard for gaming and graphic work. So I was thinking of like the best of them all so straight away just click on the most expensive laptop which has spec’s such as extreme i7’s and crossfire 680m’s with the power from a nuclear submarine powering it all I then realised that the year 2079 is a long way away and so is my budget, a machine even close to that budget was over £2000, I had a budget of around £1000 thanks to family giving me as gift, I wasn’t up for just spending £1000 on a machine just like that so I was looking around £700- £800 max. After a bit of Google and reading reviews I then spoke to a friend who’s more up with the laptop section of the world then I am and he said check out MSI, I’ve herd of MSI as they are my Graphics and motherboard partner of choice (Quote stolen of LinusJ) but my mind=blown when I found out they did laptops.

 

As soon as that convocation was over I went to their UK site and saw the GT70 Dragon Edition it ticked all my boxes spec wise great look with performance to boot I then went online to a store to see how much they wanted for it and it was shocking over £2000, after that little heart attack I scaled down a little still saying on the MSI website and looking and the GE60 0ND clicking on the webpage shows great spec, a good battery life for what’s under the hood and also a light and slick chassis. And it got better when I went to the website I said and it was on sale so I’m thinking I’ve got a great deal which did. (Or so I thought)

 

 

The aftermath

Now for the very long wait for it to turn up, when I saw that delivery man turn up on my drive 3 days later ( it felt like 3 months) and the smile on my face could not be contained, did all the signing and jazz then it was mine. Quickly and carefully taking it out the box and doing a (Linus impression in my head, Yes I did the download the latest drivers off the website thing) so here it is in my lap ready go plugged it all in when I get to turning it on I realise the Achilles heel of this computer. The standard, 64MB cache Western Digital hard drive which was trying so hard to boot Windows up, I was waiting about 15 minutes for this laptop to load into windows for the first time! Now on my main PC I have an SSD and I’m very happy with it but this laptop made me bless the technical era we now live in. as soon as all the boring starting up questions was out the way and it went into booting into Windows 8 for the first time I firstly went to the task manager to see what was taking so long on this drive after the wait I’m clear to see that the drive is at 99% up and down by 1-7% but it stayed like that for over 10 minutes I thought one off, new machine loads of bloat ware it happens just uninstall it all when it’s done. I couldn’t. Safe to say the machine was just chugging along doing nothing that I could see but was still 100-90% for over 20 minutes I then though that maybe the machine is faulty but never showed any issues with Windows such as errors or problems.

 

So I did what any IT Administrator (I’m not one but who’s looking) would do is restart the machine and see if that fixes it. Please note it’s now been 40 minutes since the delivery man came, and at the moment I’m like is this what laptop users put up with? Slow, sluggish and generally busy laptops even though there not doing anything? So then I thought maybe some updates may fix these issues. (Oh how wrong I was) the updates took 2 days… I’ll let that sink in, 2 days the machine just would not install updates no matter what I tried even seeing if there was a fix, nope it just would not have it. It was generally taking this long to do it.. I’m now thinking that this laptop must be faulty so I went back to the website and told them my story and then pretty much said CALL MSI in the biggest words possible I know that warranty related repairs are done by the manufacture I’ve learnt that by working but there was no help there and as I’m the sort of the teenager who suffers from I’ll do it later syndrome I just didn’t do that (But there’s an upside)

 

The solution

As I’m in the room watching a video on the YouTube’s I naturally had an idea. I did a quick Google of the insides of the laptop and this revealed the insides of a MSATA slot which is a great size for an SSD. So my idea which I’m sure you’ve guessed is adding an SSD into it. Firstly it requires getting an SSD and a MSATA one at that naturally I only really know about desktop SSD’s so I did a little research and there basically the same and I was looking at Crucial ones they looked ok but the write speed was a little low for me I know that I can only use so much, but a number is a number. So went through Amazon and found Plextor oddly enough it was the same day Linus uploaded a video about their new SSD’s. Anyway I went for a PX-128M5M which goes through the same stress tests as there desktop brothers and sisters I thought it’s got to be good and waited for it to turn up and then began the surgery… I mean installation. Firstly is the hardest part of the whole operation… Unscrewing the screw which is covered by the “WARRNTY VOID IF TAMPERD WITH” sticker after tempting fate I undid all the screws and came to the part of installing the SSD (If you attempting this read this little bit first) it requires a screw which is missing there is no screw that fits in the insert the only one I could find is the one under the battery but that’s your choice I know that one works. After doing all that and reinstalling and resetting and formatting I’m blessed with the joy of the laptop I thought I was getting in the first place it’s all instant no matter what I ask of it, be that ITunes, Steam, Chrome it goes instantly the best part is the boot ups, from the on switch to waiting for password is 10 seconds. Which I love that’s faster than my current desktop which cost more than the laptop and I’m still happy with it to this day it’s made this machine the lean mean fighting machine it was supposed to be when It came out the factory. I mean the gameplay great so far I haven’t tested much I’ve tried GRID on max setting it plays great no slow down at all not even with big crashes in the game. I’ve also tried Grand Theft Auto San Andreas which played butter smooth as well.

 

 

The verdict

I am now happy with this laptop; it has everything I need from a laptop in a package I can be happy with. Personally if I was to give any advice for taking your time and wasting it, it’s get an SSD in this thing it’s a great combination and it will make the machine fly like an eagle

 

Thanks for reading, comments will be great I like feedback and also the links to everything is below. Thanks again! J

 

 

SSD

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plextor-PX-128M5M-Series-Ultrabook-Internal/dp/B00B3P888C/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1367357913&sr=8-11&keywords=plextor

 

Laptop

http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GE60-0NC.html

[Dani360c]

Hi, I have also bought a GE60 a while ago, and also upgraded it with an MSata SSD. Since our chipset (HM76) does not support SRT, I was wondering what you did with your SSD to make it faster? Did you reinstall OS on it or did you use any other form of caching? I would be happy to know what you did, because right now it's just sitting as ekstra drive. :)

[Mrcrysis2000]

Hi, I have also bought a GE60 a while ago, and also upgraded it with an MSata SSD. Since our chipset (HM76) does not support SRT, I was wondering what you did with your SSD to make it faster? Did you reinstall OS on it or did you use any other form of caching? I would be happy to know what you did, because right now it's just sitting as ekstra drive. :)

I did a reinstall on it and have the standard hard drive for content and stuff, i aint tried it in caching mode, and its a high speed SSD too what SSD did you use? :)

[Dani360c]

I use a crucial M4 128gb :)

[joelthezombie15]

i often wondered if msi laptops were any good and now i know

[Mrcrysis2000]

i often wondered if msi laptops were any good and now i know

 Can i ask did you find it useful as im tempted to do more about tech i get in the future? :) 

[Mrcrysis2000]

I use a crucial M4 128gb :)

The speed in that is lower then the Plextor i have but that should make that much of a difference :P did you do a fresh install? :) 

[joelthezombie15]

Can i ask did you find it useful as im tempted to do more about tech i get in the future? :)

Ya it was helpful

[Dani360c]

The speed in that is lower then the Plextor i have but that should make that much of a difference  :P did you do a fresh install? :)

no, im too far into personalising my pc, so it would take too much work, i'm currently looking for a solution like migrating the OS to the SSD, but have not found any good options yet :)

[Mrcrysis2000]

no, im too far into personalising my pc, so it would take too much work, i'm currently looking for a solution like migrating the OS to the SSD, but have not found any good options yet :)

What ever you do, do not clone it I've herd bad things about it :(

[Dani360c]

What ever you do, do not clone it I've herd bad things about it :(

migrating OS i kinda like cloning, might have to figure out something else then :(

[Mrcrysis2000]

migrating OS i kinda like cloning, might have to figure out something else then :(

Try a fresh install? :) 

[Dani360c]

Try a fresh install? :)

i'll consider it :)

[beebskadoo]

I have the Lenovo Y580 and to be completely honest, it has been entirely frustrating to use. I need to do a clean windows 8 install. the bloatware just kills it. my boot times went from around 5 seconds to about 20 in a couple of weeks. makes me want to throw it.

[Mrcrysis2000]

I have the Lenovo Y580 and to be completely honest, it has been entirely frustrating to use. I need to do a clean windows 8 install. the bloatware just kills it. my boot times went from around 5 seconds to about 20 in a couple of weeks. makes me want to throw it.

See if there is a MSATA port :) if so get an SSD in it ! :)

[beebskadoo]

See if there is a MSATA port :) if so get an SSD in it ! :)

it has one and i just ordered a cruciial M4 256 GB. yayness : now the issue is re-installing or moving the OS to the ssd. have you had any experience with that?

[Mrcrysis2000]

it has one and i just ordered a cruciial M4 256 GB. yayness : now the issue is re-installing or moving the OS to the ssd. have you had any experience with that?

Personally yes and it couldn't of gone smoother you need to get a copy of windows 8 make sure you have windows 8 or windows 8 pro and also backup anything you want safe go to advance the drive should pop up saying ssd and hard drive wipe the hard drive clean and install it on the ssd I didn't even have to put the serial code in! Oh yeah download a serial key reader just in case your machine does not remember the code, also write a review on how it goes :) hope this helps

[beebskadoo]

Personally yes and it couldn't of gone smoother you need to get a copy of windows 8 make sure you have windows 8 or windows 8 pro and also backup anything you want safe go to advance the drive should pop up saying ssd and hard drive wipe the hard drive clean and install it on the ssd I didn't even have to put the serial code in! Oh yeah download a serial key reader just in case your machine does not remember the code, also write a review on how it goes :) hope this helps

 

 

Personally yes and it couldn't of gone smoother you need to get a copy of windows 8 make sure you have windows 8 or windows 8 pro and also backup anything you want safe go to advance the drive should pop up saying ssd and hard drive wipe the hard drive clean and install it on the ssd I didn't even have to put the serial code in! Oh yeah download a serial key reader just in case your machine does not remember the code, also write a review on how it goes :) hope this helps

Hey Thanks for the quick reply :) Well I should have specified. i have installed windows several times on many different machines so I basically know the drill. What I didn't elaborate on was the fact that it is a Lenovo, therefore it didn't come with any OS disk. So i either get a windows  copy... which no one i know has one so that's out of the question because I'm certainly not buying one any time soon. And the second issue is if I go the data migration route, which should I use? Or should I create a backup DVD and do it using that method. I am fairly tech savvy and I know that I could do any one of those methods with confidence. However I am just looking for the best method/advice. Sorry if I sound like a moron lol. But the ssd is in the mail and should be here within 2 days so there's a slight sense of urgency lol. I just don't want to have a 256GB ssd sitting around not being used to it's full potential :) ty

[Mrcrysis2000]

Hey Thanks for the quick reply :) Well I should have specified. i have installed windows several times on many different machines so I basically know the drill. What I didn't elaborate on was the fact that it is a Lenovo, therefore it didn't come with any OS disk. So i either get a windows  copy... which no one i know has one so that's out of the question because I'm certainly not buying one any time soon. And the second issue is if I go the data migration route, which should I use? Or should I create a backup DVD and do it using that method. I am fairly tech savvy and I know that I could do any one of those methods with confidence. However I am just looking for the best method/advice. Sorry if I sound like a moron lol. But the ssd is in the mail and should be here within 2 days so there's a slight sense of urgency lol. I just don't want to have a 256GB ssd sitting around not being used to it's full potential :) ty

err well i've herd cloning from a SSD to A HDD causes issues for it so i normally recommend that you try backing it on to a DVD and doing that way!, you may have to go down the dangerous road of P2P to get the windows 8 disk :O

[beebskadoo]

err well i've herd cloning from a SSD to A HDD causes issues for it so i normally recommend that you try backing it on to a DVD and doing that way!, you may have to go down the dangerous road of P2P to get the windows 8 disk :o

Yeah that's what i was afraid of. But another option is installing windows 7 and using the upgrade option but I honestly don't know if that would work with the oem W8 key. There's another thing I was reading online about a sort of W8 trial version that deactivates after 30 days or something like that. I could try that but I don't know if that would allow me to use the product key with it. :/ I wish the OEM's would just include the disks. I bought my BF a dell Inspiron 2012 model that came with a copy of 7. This is quite a challenge for something that could be simpler. 

[Mrcrysis2000]

Yeah that's what i was afraid of. But another option is installing windows 7 and using the upgrade option but I honestly don't know if that would work with the oem W8 key. There's another thing I was reading online about a sort of W8 trial version that deactivates after 30 days or something like that. I could try that but I don't know if that would allow me to use the product key with it. :/ I wish the OEM's would just include the disks. I bought my BF a dell Inspiron 2012 model that came with a copy of 7. This is quite a challenge for something that could be simpler. 

Working for a large computer repair company within the UK i know the pain of no recovery disks :(, also your idea of installing 7 and doing the upgrade won't work sadly :( Ive tried it at work and all to no avail :( and companies do it because tbh we should be stupid with how to use laptop and never even look inside one ! :P 

[beebskadoo]

Working for a large computer repair company within the UK i know the pain of no recovery disks :(, also your idea of installing 7 and doing the upgrade won't work sadly :( Ive tried it at work and all to no avail :( and companies do it because tbh we should be stupid with how to use laptop and never even look inside one ! :P

Well I did some thinking and i have come up with the conclusion that I will just simply use the CD method. sounds the easiest i guess and it makes lenovo happy lol

[Mrcrysis2000]

Well I did some thinking and i have come up with the conclusion that I will just simply use the CD method. sounds the easiest i guess and it makes lenovo happy lol

Please tell us how it goes :)