My GT-60 Japanese game creation workstation.

[k_silvereagle]

Hi, I am pretty new here to the forums, and got into PC gaming within the past 2 years. Ill try to keep this thread pretty casual. I have been surprised very much to see that very few people on most websites are expressing their experience using the GT60 workstation and gaming platform from MSI. I have found this heavy 14 pound notebook to be the very best computer I have ever owned in my life, and it is a rather nice entry level workstation/gaming rig for someone to start learning how to do many things and get into PC gaming.

I bought the system in October 2013, in Akihabara Tokyo, at Sofmap tech store. Akihabara is a test market district, I was able to score a great deal on this system on clearance. Similar MSI GT60s at the time back in the USA were selling for $2700 with less ram, and less GDDR5 memory cards.

Hope my notes help out some people who are considering going with a GT-60 for their setup.

The full model: GT60 ONC-454JP

RAM: 16 GB (DDR3)

CPU: i7-3630QM 2.4 Ghz (Factory Turbo-boost 3.4Ghz) Locked, not overclockable.

----Cores:4

----Threads:8

HDD: 11,000RPM mechanical 2.5' platter drive (have considered doing an SSD upgrade)

GPU: Nvidia GTX 670MX (3GB GDDR5) 960 CUDA Cores @ 600 Mhz.

Wifi: B/G/N bands

Processing power (Still verifying)

CPU: 218 GFLOPS

GPU: 1.152 TFLOPS

I started out with just standard 1080p gaming, i am able with a lot of games to crank up the graphics to maximum ultra settings, and can get by playing in ultra well with most games, with framerates in the 30s. Some games i have to lower the settings some to achieve more desirable framerates though. I have gotten into the hobby of 3D modelling back in 2011. At the time I couldn't even run blender well along with the other necessary programs, since i had a low end 400$ toshiba machine at the time. This machine has made such a major difference to be able to produce more 3D models and learn much more rapidly. The multi-tasking ability of the system is spectacular, since i often run 70-80 programs at once, chewing through about roughly 8 of my 16 gb of ram on a daily basis, but still i have plenty of memory to handle my multi-tasking.

I run my system with a 19 inch monitor at the workstation table, along with a long HDMI cable to a Sony Bravia 32'' 1080p panel, that i use for watching movies, or relaxing to play games with my Xbox 360 controller that is connected to the system. It is wonderful being able to use it as a console in this way! For input devices, the GT60 comes with a Steel Series keyboard built in, but I prefer fully mechanical input at the workstation table. I have 2 keyboards that i use. I have a Razer Blackwidow Chroma with razer green switches (louder than blue Cherries, be warned), that I use for most general things and gaming. I bought this keyboard because I wanted to create custom profiles for my programs that i use for creativity and games, to illuminate only the useful keys that I need for functionality in-game or in-program. The second keyboard I pull out when I am going to be typing heavily for quite a while, is a classic 23 year old IBM model M buckling spring keyboard. The solid recoil and super firm keys make it a very pleasant experience when I am spending time writing storyboards or chapters for the novel that is the accompanying story to the game I am working on. Getting the story together is the key to a well organized game.

That leads me into the other hobby area I have gotten into, which is game development. I have been learning how to make 3D games using LSL (Opensim, sadly shut down now) and Unity Engine, mainly because they were open and free tools to use, and my first game release will likely use Unity as the game engine, as that is unlikely to change. So far the system is able to render my builds and worlds without trouble, even at 100,000 polygons.

I will post more further updates about my system, and maybe share a photo of the small workstation. I am interested to hear what kind of workstation/gaming setups others have made with their GT60s. Also if anyone else has other abnormal model numbers like mine.

Forgot to mention, the JP version that I have has a turbo-button that I didnt see before on the US models that allows me to run at 3.4ghz at all times when selected. Ill be sure to share some more benchmarks if people are interested as well later on.

Until next time

K_Silvereagle

[Bugii]

Hey, welcome to the forums.

Glad you enjoy your desktop replacement.

Most of us here do know what are these machines capable of.

My very first contact was with GT780R (the one with GTX560M card) and I've been using it for over 4 years. Upgraded to GTX770M.

Thats pretty impressive if you consider the fact its "mostly" a laptop. Never had a laptop to keep up performance for 4 years.

Actually, I've never seen a laptop where you can upgrade almost everything. Most of cheap laptops let you change RAM or HDD. In MSI you can swap GPU, CPU, even bluetooth or wifi modules. Its like a desktop.

Since then, I sold it (for about 80% of the price I bought it in 2011, sure with upgrades now.) and bought GT70 2QD.

Even though Tiatn SLI and GT72 were an option, I made sure Im buying GT70! - GT72 and titan SLI have soldered CPU while GT70 (old chassis) has not.

The only probelm is I cannot upgrade to SLI GPU setup. On the other hand, I can upgrade CPU without a need to buy whole mobo.

I also dont really feel the need to run SLI. If one 980M wont be enough, I'll just replace it for something new, instead of buying second 980m.

Most people nowadays still think "laptops are not for gaming". Well that was true 5 years ago.

You should see their faces when I bring this little beast to LAN party and my GTX980M outperforms their desktops

Apart form gaming, I use it for video editing (Premiere, AfterEffects) and it works excellent. Although GPU could use ECC memory though :-/

As you said you need to turn some settings down for some games, have a look at ebay or ask here on forums - you can upgrade to GTX970M without any issues. Plug'n'play