MSI GS30 Shadow

[DeViLzzz]

A very interesting product for sure.  It may not be perfect but it is a step in the right direction.  More options for gamers is good.

[pk-man]

interesting concept that is ruined by ridiculous price and horrible battery life.

 

To be honest, i don't really see the point of this product. It's super niche.

[nicklmg]

@nicklmg the pre roll add didnt have audio

Yep, somehow Premiere bugged out... Fixed the audio in one spot, muted it in another

[Phantron]

I planned on buying the GS30 when it was first announced, but that stupid box is so big and the dock location doesn't make sense if you actually want to game using the laptop.

I did more research and went the DIY eGPU route. My build has all the pros that Linus wished for with the GS30, great battery life, silent while gaming, and not bulky system.

 

My build:
2014 13" Macbook Pro Retina, 2.6GHz dualcore i5, 8GB ram, 256GB storage, Intel Iris Graphics, Windows 8.1
AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box (modded)
EVGA SuperNOVA 750W fully modular power supply (modded)
GALAX GTX 970 OC 4GB

 

*I would normally never buy an Apple product, but this build is perfect for it (great battery life, build quality, onboard graphics, light weight, and thunderbolt2 port)

 

 

3Dmark: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5732847

[Claryn]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the vidock also needs the sonnet echo express card dock to convert from the express card exiting the vidock to thunderbolt2, and that is another 150$ at least.

 

You are correct, but when I bought that adapter, it did cost 50 bucks.

Either way, you get the same for 350dollar and you can use whatever laptop you want. And it is WAY smaller. 

[Daniele M]

I planned on buying the GS30 when it was first announced, but that stupid box is so big and the dock location doesn't make sense if you actually want to game using the laptop.

I did more research and went the DIY eGPU route. My build has all the pros that Linus wished for with the GS30, great battery life, silent while gaming, and not bulky system.

 

My build:

2014 13" Macbook Pro Retina, 2.6GHz dualcore i5, 8GB ram, 256GB storage, Intel Iris Graphics, Windows 8.1

AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box (modded)

EVGA SuperNOVA 750W fully modular power supply (modded)

GALAX GTX 970 OC 4GB

 

*I would normally never buy an Apple product, but this build is perfect for it (great battery life, build quality, onboard graphics, light weight, and thunderbolt2 port)

 

 

3Dmark: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5732847

 

I looked into doing the same thing a while ago and a solution like yours is perfect, it's relatively cheap because the akitio is only 200$ and it only needs a PSU and a pci riser with molex connector if i remember correctly.

And the battery life of the rMBP 13" is maybe double that of the gs30.

[NakedChicken]

if it was macbook air sized and quieter I would be interested. But it does need some things like a 3rd slot for a sound card.

[NumLock21]

External graphics for laptops is nothing new, it has been done in the past.

http://www.villagetronic.com/g3/vidock2/index.html

[Kazuzuagogo]

It's interesting how split people are over this product; it's definitely a testament to how innovative it is. Some people are going to love it, and some people are going to hate it, that's just the way it is. I personally see a lot of potential in this concept. Of course, this is just Gen 1 so it's not even close to what would be ideal, but imagine just having one of these boxes at work configured to your needs (whether it's extra ram, hard drive space, graphics or CPU power) and having one at home configured to your needs at home. Instead of having 3 seperate computers that don't communicate with each other, you have one ecosystem that stays constant wherever you go, without the use of the cloud (a.k.a. under your control). Again, there are lots of problems that engineers need to solve ( CPU over a PCIe Interface? Driver configurations?) but as Linus said, this is the start of an interesting concept.

[Pasco1990]

Forgive me as i usually Lurk and read but this seems like a straight rip off of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. 

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-graphics-amplifier?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=452-BBRG&redirect=1

[NeoZeon]

I looked into doing the same thing a while ago and a solution like yours is perfect, it's relatively cheap because the akitio is only 200$ and it only needs a PSU and a pci riser with molex connector if i remember correctly.

And the battery life of the rMBP 13" is maybe double that of the gs30.

 

 

Does this work in bootcamp? A lot of people seem to be having trouble with it in boot camp.

[Phantron]

Does this work in bootcamp? A lot of people seem to be having trouble with it in boot camp.

 

Works perfect with Windows 8.1 bootcamp

[Whatsupnowbro]

So linus you covered the notebook and its performance with the added horsepower of the added GPU, but how well does this notebook hold up in gaming terms with this "iris pro graphics". I'm curious.

[Whatsupnowbro]

Forgive me as i usually Lurk and read but this seems like a straight rip off of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. 

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-graphics-amplifier?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=452-BBRG&redirect=1

I agree i think that they could have done worlds better with a 3.5 inch drive bay and extra io and not to mention it takes up more space and looks stupid having an extra box plugged into your notebook, like for real. Not to mention that alienware's solution is basically a PCIe slot with a power adapter. I think that msi totally showed up alienware with their gs30 stealth. the only issue for me with them both is the fact that you would need to purchase another graphics card which I know that there is no way around that, but i would totally be all for having a gs30 with a 750Ti or a 970. (I know about the 970 incident and frankly I don't care. its still a beast of a card.)

[Revinval]

I think this is a great idea for a product but of course it needs some work. For one make the cooling also cool the CPU when docked. Second I feel that if the dock was positioned so the laptop was in-front of it that would make it more manageable, however, for what it is a laptop that turns into a desktop its a great idea. Just positioning and cooling needs work. 

[Ranger Xense]

I think MSI should redesign their CPU are layout as such, eliminating throttle, helping towards silence and giving an overall better experience.

 

[slauncher]

I recently purchased this computer along with a msi gtx970 - scored 10,300 on firestrike with just a tiny overclock. Linus accurately stated the awesome performance of this computer, I must say that he was pretty harsh on "design flaws" that genuinely haven't been an issue for me. The sound of the internal fan is indeed loud - I fixed that mostly with dropping max cpu power down a percentage - have seen no performance throttling from that and it keeps temps nice and cool. Also - his suggestion of putting the dock fan setting to low makes night and day difference of the noise coming from the dock - it's damn near silent. (still have laptop fan noise if you are running cpu hard).
All in all - for my needs, full time student with a full time job- this is great- I take it around to knock out school work on the go - and bring it home for awesome desktop gaming. 
People keep comparing it to the AW13/AW15 - if you are considering alienware please make sure to look into the fit and finish issues they are having, screen ghosting, no raid 0 support, the subpar cpu which is causing bottleneck when plugged into graphics amp, and of course the graphics amp pcie x 4 which is a bottleneck in itself. Most AW13/15 benchmarks I've seen using a gtx980 nonetheless are coming in around 6-7k, and they are only a few hundred cheaper (and with less ram, no ssd, worse cpu). To me there is no comparison - I am benchmarking almost 30-40% higher with a $220 cheaper gpu.
For those of you wondering - without the dock it will run games like League of Legends at med-high setting 60 fps smooth (with iris pro graphics). I know league isn't demanding but at least gives you an idea of what it is capable of.
For all the youtube haters- yes I priced out buying a decent ultrabook (that I could get work done on that wasn't miserably laggy and slow) and a quality gaming desktop and of course I could have saved 2-300$. I justify this purchase in the awesome portability, the strong cpu (which based on how cpu development is going these days) should last quite a few years, and the ability to upgrade the gpu. It's also a big plus having all of my needed files on one pc. 
Hope this shed some light on a few things - and when it comes down to it - spend your money how you see fit! To my friends out there with similar needs (portability) student, office work, but love to be able to come home and game- this is genuinely a powerful machine - and well worth the money.

[slauncher]

I'm not sure if linus actually replies to these threads-  but I would love an answer to this question if anyone can help.

I'd like to swap out the fan on the dock - as in low mode it is pretty quiet - (med or high you get great cooling but lots of noise) - so far temps are fine as I monitor them like a nut with the fan on low - but I'd still rather find an aftermarket fan that is as quiet as this is on low - but with optimal cooling.

All in all this is an awesome system - but I'd just like to make this one improvement -anyone out there know if this is possible?

 

Also - a recommendation to owners out there-  I found just lowering max processor power to 99% on plugged in - gave significantly better heat profiles and no performance issues - tested on bf4 in hd ultra. 

When on battery - if I need 5 hours on it - I drop max cpu power even further - computer still absolutely flies with no hiccups at all (multitasking) but gives me a no stress 5-6 hours of battery life (with medium brightness).

doing this also reduces the fan turning on as often - which is nice because this fan is a bit loud.

[Syntaxvgm]

Forgive me as i usually Lurk and read but this seems like a straight rip off of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. 

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-graphics-amplifier?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=452-BBRG&redirect=1

it's not a rip, gamers have been wanting this for year. MSI's was announced before alienwares was. That said I think the alienware one is a much better solution. 

[Syntaxvgm]

I'm not sure if linus actually replies to these threads-  but I would love an answer to this question if anyone can help.

I'd like to swap out the fan on the dock - as in low mode it is pretty quiet - (med or high you get great cooling but lots of noise) - so far temps are fine as I monitor them like a nut with the fan on low - but I'd still rather find an aftermarket fan that is as quiet as this is on low - but with optimal cooling.

All in all this is an awesome system - but I'd just like to make this one improvement -anyone out there know if this is possible?

 

Also - a recommendation to owners out there-  I found just lowering max processor power to 99% on plugged in - gave significantly better heat profiles and no performance issues - tested on bf4 in hd ultra. 

When on battery - if I need 5 hours on it - I drop max cpu power even further - computer still absolutely flies with no hiccups at all (multitasking) but gives me a no stress 5-6 hours of battery life (with medium brightness).

doing this also reduces the fan turning on as often - which is nice because this fan is a bit loud.

idk what size the fan is, but replace it with something fancy, like a noctua one? 

[JohnQ]

Damn, this is like.. damn

[Celmor]

Why not putting an audio sample of the fan noise in the video ?

[nando4]

Was initially interested in the GS30 but the notebook itself is pretty poor compared to various candidate Thunderbolt-equipped Macbooks, HP ZBooks and Lenovo W541, Dell M3800.  I'm not keen on the proprietory eGPU dock either.

 

Anybody interested in this concept may want to have a browse of the existing documented 10Gbps-TB1 (Thunderbolt1) and 16Gbps-TB2 (Thunderbolt2) eGPU implementations.

 

TechInfero: DIY eGPU Implementations Hub - Thunderbolt

[Sharif]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DcK5NU0904&ab_channel=MSIGaming

 

GREAT AUDIO,i lost myself at that moment.

[soak]

Does anybody know how the keyboard is to use? I'm extremely picky about my keyboards, but it's a special order item at the retailers where I live.