MSI GX660R Laptop Review

MSI GX660R Laptop Review

Conclusion

Obviously if you look at the results from a strict performance for money vantage, taking into account desktops and similar, then it would be easy for you to dismiss it as a little bit of an under performer.

But you’d be wrong.

You need to remember this is a laptop which naturally incur larger production costs than a desktop thanks to the need to keep everything compact, cool, and energy efficient. As soon as you move from an average internet capable model into something as hard-rocking as the MSI GX660R then we really are into mega-buck territory, and also have to temper our expectations to the level of mobile computing.

With that done, how does the MSI GX660R fair?

We reckon, damn well. Starting with the results for the application end of things we’re very impressed. This is a pocket powerhouse. It’s why you need to not compare it to things that have gone across our testing table before, because this isn’t a 4GHz 12-thread beast, but a little 2.5 GHz laptop. So to be seeing the results we are show that MSI really are getting the most out of the hardware available.

This is especially true when we reach the games. Of course we’re not seeing mega results in terms of FPS, but you have to remember that we’re dealing with a mobile GPU as well as a mobile CPU.

In fact across the board we get about half of what we see on our behemoth of a bench rig from a computer you can slip in a bag and costs a grand. How is that not impressive?

Special mention needs to be made of the audio which really is amazing. There is depth, clarity, volume and a lack of distortion. It’s far beyond any “built into your tv/display” speakers and up there with a good set of desktop ones. If you’ve even a passing interest in having any form of audio you can enjoy without external equipment the MSI GX660R is the best laptop we’ve ever seen.


So it looks the boss, it is built like a tank, performs like a £2000 laptop but only costs a grand and comes from MSI who are great at customer service.

If you demand it to be part of your render farm or expect to blow Crysis 2 out the water, you might be disappointed. For everyone else this is a blinder. We love it and we’re sorry to see it go. Every single member of the team wants one, MSI you have been warned, you may need some beefy Kensington locks!

    

Thanks to MSI for providing the GX660R for review. Discuss in our forums.