Need Advice on Specs of MSI 640

[euenf]

Hey, I'm generally new to both laptops and this forum, so I thought I better drop by and ask a few questions in regards to the laptop I'll be buying. After long consideration and countless reviews read, it seems as if for my college career, the best laptop that has both the element of high gaming and note-taking would be the MSI 640. I use to lean heavily on the Sager 8690 (I like 15' beter than 17'.. too clunky to carry around all day), until I learned that the battery life of the Sager was around an hour, tops. The MSI, I've heard, gives much more battery life due to the GPU card (I'm guessing, of course) and I am willing to downgrade the 5870 to 5850 if it means that I'll be able to take notes in classes that don't necessarily have power outlets available. With that said, please look over the specs I have currently on my model. There are a few questions / concerns that I have in bold.

I currently live in Taipei, and thus, would probably both be very expensive (I'm estimating an extra 200 US) and a long wait time. Maybe I'll just wait until July or so and get it when I'm in the States. Will new things come out by then?

MSI GX640-098US (http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?products_id=2766%7B76%7D1743%7B94 %7D1074%7B92%7D2450%7B187%7D2646%7B88%7D1671%7B194 %7D2594%7B186%7D1532%7B93%7D2710%7B112%7D656%7B98% 7D2789%7B96%7D2723%7B115%7D681%7B199%7D751%7B168%7 D1453%7B116%7D696%7B117%7D707%7B120%7D703%7B110%7D 2771%7B169%7D1449%7B119%7D1898%7B100%7D734%7B164%7 D1441%7B107%7D1539%7B106%7D1690%7B121%7D694%7B108% 7D710%7B109%7D711%7B170%7D1492%7B173%7D1175%7B167% 7D14)
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5850 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds) They apply this for you, right? And is it really needed? I heard the MSI cooling system is not as good as the Sager, but it isn't bad as well. Will having the ICD Thermal Compound extend my laptop life in any way?
- - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) Why does 620 cost more than the 720? Is it worth it to get the 620? Is it i7 worth the upgrade over i5? Will the i7 give higher temperatures than the i5?
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- 15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050)
- 4GB (2 SODIMM) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory Is it true that you will NEVER need more than 4GB of RAM? What is the difference between 1333 MHz and 1000 MHz? Is the 1333MHz worth it in the long run?
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software (If choosing a 2nd HDD in the Optical Drive Bay no Optical Disk Drive will be included)
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
- No 2nd Hard Drive in ODD Bay
- Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO) What is this?
- -Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module I heard the Stock wireless isn't all that great.
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Spare Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell) While I heard that the battery life is around 2hrs, I'll still be getting an extra just in case something comes up.
- No Notebook Cooler Are Notebook Coolers worth it? Do they make a difference for the model?
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit w/System Recovery Partition + Drivers & Utilities Disk

Thanks for taking time to help me out. I really appreciate it.

[jbermi]

Hey, I'm generally new to both laptops and this forum, so I thought I better drop by and ask a few questions in regards to the laptop I'll be buying. After long consideration and countless reviews read, it seems as if for my college career, the best laptop that has both the element of high gaming and note-taking would be the MSI 640. I use to lean heavily on the Sager 8690 (I like 15' beter than 17'.. too clunky to carry around all day), until I learned that the battery life of the Sager was around an hour, tops. The MSI, I've heard, gives much more battery life due to the GPU card (I'm guessing, of course) and I am willing to downgrade the 5870 to 5850 if it means that I'll be able to take notes in classes that don't necessarily have power outlets available. With that said, please look over the specs I have currently on my model. There are a few questions / concerns that I have in bold.

I currently live in Taipei, and thus, would probably both be very expensive (I'm estimating an extra 200 US) and a long wait time. Maybe I'll just wait until July or so and get it when I'm in the States. Will new things come out by then?

MSI GX640-098US (http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?products_id=2766%7B76%7D1743%7B94 %7D1074%7B92%7D2450%7B187%7D2646%7B88%7D1671%7B194 %7D2594%7B186%7D1532%7B93%7D2710%7B112%7D656%7B98% 7D2789%7B96%7D2723%7B115%7D681%7B199%7D751%7B168%7 D1453%7B116%7D696%7B117%7D707%7B120%7D703%7B110%7D 2771%7B169%7D1449%7B119%7D1898%7B100%7D734%7B164%7 D1441%7B107%7D1539%7B106%7D1690%7B121%7D694%7B108% 7D710%7B109%7D711%7B170%7D1492%7B173%7D1175%7B167% 7D14)
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5850 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds) They apply this for you, right? And is it really needed? I heard the MSI cooling system is not as good as the Sager, but it isn't bad as well. Will having the ICD Thermal Compound extend my laptop life in any way?
- - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) Why does 620 cost more than the 720? Is it worth it to get the 620? Is it i7 worth the upgrade over i5? Will the i7 give higher temperatures than the i5?
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- 15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050)
- 4GB (2 SODIMM) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory Is it true that you will NEVER need more than 4GB of RAM? What is the difference between 1333 MHz and 1000 MHz? Is the 1333MHz worth it in the long run?
- - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X DVDRW Drive w/ Software (If choosing a 2nd HDD in the Optical Drive Bay no Optical Disk Drive will be included)
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
- No 2nd Hard Drive in ODD Bay
- Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO) What is this?
- -Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module I heard the Stock wireless isn't all that great.
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Spare Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell) While I heard that the battery life is around 2hrs, I'll still be getting an extra just in case something comes up.
- No Notebook Cooler Are Notebook Coolers worth it? Do they make a difference for the model?
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit w/System Recovery Partition + Drivers & Utilities Disk

Thanks for taking time to help me out. I really appreciate it.

first off, a lot of laptop manufacturers have new laptops in line for before school starts, they should be coming out in june/july in time for students heading back to school, so if you want to hold off you can, I know for a fact that MSI will have a new GT6xx series laptop (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/laptops/2010/05/21/computex-2010-preview-msi/3) in june, not sure on when it will be available in retailers in the US.

I think that a laptop like this may not be the most appropiate note taking laptop, I would think if it could be afforded, that you could get the stock GT640 (which will be a good gaming laptop as is, the i5 can hold its own and the 5850 is just a slower clocked 5870) and then a 300 dollar netbook for note taking, do you reaally want to lug a large laptop around, and a laptop like the MSI 640 will get looks, too. people like shiny objects to steal.

the other thing is battery life, for notetaking it may last 2 hours, but do any gaming or anything rigorous, you will get a hour at best. I don't think which laptop you get, this will apply.

I can't answer you on the thermal compound issue, I am sure it will help if you do decide to go with a processor upgrade.

memory speed will be something you will never notice, as many people will tell you on this page, so save your money and go with the 1066mhz. it's a waste to spend mooney on the speed when you can spend on increasing to 8GB. 4GB mem is fine and will get the job done, but 8GB will future proof you for the next few years.

notebook coolers are always a good investment, they don't cost much.

the intel wireless 6200 card is a great upgrade, due to it has better bandwidth, is dual band. (makes a big difference, i noticed the speed increase on mine over my old laptop's stock wireless n speeds)

the internal card reader reads memory cards from phones, cameras, etc.

hope this could have been a help, i know others will have their own opinions about what you should do, too.

[euenf]

I thought about that, but I realized that the only thing I plan to do while I am unplugged is word processing. I'm not the kind of person who'd watch movies or play games on the go. However, if I do decide in the near future to just simply get a cheaper laptop to take notes, I think I'd switch towards the Sager NP8690 since the battery life is the only reason why I prefer the MSI over the Sager.

[uncivilised]

msi has the better price/performance if budget is an issue. I wouldnt use the msi for notetaking, you should look at the asus ones with 10hr battery life (they r perfect). Assuming u are a gamer either the msi or sager is great an very powerful. Your make or break point should be based on the aesthetics, temps, screen ratio and price between the sager n msi. Both have similar performance, really up to you.