Seems like MSI has put a lot of effort with the GT660 — not just with the hardware specifications but with the design and the audio system as well. Check out the full review of the MSI GT660 after the jump and see if it’s worth the Php110,000USD 1,874INR 158,906EUR 1,785CNY 13,651 price tag.
The GT660 is just huge and for a 16-inch notebook, it’s just heavy (7.7lbs) and is like a beast of a laptop. It may not be as cool-looking as an Alienware M17x but it’s got some design inspiration from the latter with all that chiseled corners. Even the lid cover reminded me of the Mazda 3’s hood.
Open up the lid and you’d be greeted with an extended keyboard that includes an alpha-numeric keypad on the right side. It’s a nice addition but if you’re a regular laptop-user, the orientation is confusing that you always tend to hit the wrong keys when typing. One needs some time to get used to the extra keys and learn to familiarize where the Enter button is.
The chiclet-type keys are appropriately sized with special color labels on the gaming keys (asdw) and the arrow keys.
And while it’s glossy black on the outside, it’s rough and textured in the inside — the palm rest has this honeycomb finish and the trackpad feels like sand-paper and is somewhat flushed to the left. The left and right click buttons are not separated but shaped accordingly to differentiate the two.
Above the keyboard are light indicators with the power button in the center. On both sides are two huge stereo speakers powered by Dynaudio. The speakers are impressive, offering good sound volume to appreciate movie playback even at a distance. The audio quality is somewhere between good to great with a strong, deep bass and probably is the best laptop speakers I’ve tried so far.
The 16-inch display is bright and crisp with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels (I was actually expecting it could be higher, somewhere in the 1600×1200 range, because of the large real estate). The glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors and against bright light sources.
The MSI GT660 is powered by Intel’s Core i7 720QM with 4 cores and 8 threads that runs at a base clock speed of 1.6GHz for each core but can boost up to 2.8GHz. This chip is among the most powerful processors to be fitted in a laptop.
Couple that with an nVidia GeForce GTX 285M with 1GB GDDR3 VRAM, 6GB of DDR3 memory and you get a beast of a gaming machine. The GT660 is also the very first notebook I’ve seen that sports two (2) hard disk drives — it has two 500GB HDD for a total of 1 terabyte (would be interesting if it can do Raid 0/1 here). Full laptop specs are posted here.
Windows Experience Index gives it a base score of 5.9 due to the HDD but the CPU got a sub-score of 7.0 and the graphics got a 6.9 sub-score. Posted PassMark performance test here but the WEI should be enough to compare with your own rig.
As expected, battery life suffers from all the power requirements. Even with a high-capacity 9-cell (7800mAh) Li-Ion battery, the notebook only lasts just over 2 hours on a single full charge (as indicated by BatteryBar in the screenshot above).
As a desktop replacement and gaming rig, I reckon you’d always be plugging this notebook to a power outlet so battery life isn’t a big issue for a laptop in this category although I can appreciate MSI’s effort to put in a 9-cell battery here.
To make it more interesting, MSI retrofitted several red lights around the notebook to make it look meaner (front and side as well as the edges of the lid) but forgot to include a backlit keyboard.
The MSI GT660 has a premium price tag of Php109,990USD 1,874INR 158,892EUR 1,785CNY 13,650 but the specs of this gaming rig is very impressive to somewhat justify that. It’s not your regular multimedia notebook and this kind of combination is hard to come by.
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Carlfinity says:
That’s one hell of a design! Very masculine and modern!
mpst says:
ive been waiting for this, same as a customized alienware but way more affordable, and id rather pay for an msi prod than a dell prod. I hope they put led lit keypads. 100k even up to 150 for this is justifisable for a notebook.
Monique says:
Isa lang comment, WOW! :)
A bit pricey but it really looks good inside and out.
Noel Nuguid says:
Can anybody try running Crysis Warhead in very high detail on this baby? I wanna know how it goes.
Teknisyan says:
It sure it pricey when you compare it to other msi notebook but cheaper than any alienware and even a mac book pro with similar specs.
Herce says:
For a desktop replacement (2 hour battery) the resolution is way too low. Its hard to understand the thinking. Giving a good GPU is for gaming, but no gamer would ever game on such a low resolution.
Mon Macutay says:
@teknisyan,
your blog sucks, meh!
Teknisyan says:
@ mon
tnx for taking time to checkout my blog! :-)
Mon Macutay says:
Why would I even look at your blog? Your grammar alone is bad enough to fend off any visitor to visit your crappy blog
Teknisyan says:
@mon atleast i knw what i need 2 work on! tnx again! your d best!
John says:
Sup Sir Yuga!
Nice review sir!
Offtopic question:
What do you think of Sony Vaio E-series VPCEA21EG/BI?
here’s the link of the specs and stuff:
http://www.sony.com.ph/product/vpcea21eg
it runs on Intel® Pentium® Processor P6000 (1.86GHz) CPU, do you think this is worth it? Is this CPU good for MMORPG type of games? Thanks a lot.
Solidad says:
I don’t have problems with MSI, in fact I like them a a lot. Despite of being a beast, I’m not keen on buying a Gaming Laptop that will only last me 2-3 years.
@teknisyan
Don’t mind that guy. Grammar Nazis only care what’s on the skin but not what’s on the inside.
Teknisyan says:
@Sol
Not a problem.. :)
The best advice that I can give to people who are buying laptops/computers that have the budget is to buy the highest specs in the market this way.. they wont feel bad if after a month or two a new model is released.
sylv3rblade says:
@Tek
actually they would feel bad but not because of the new model… they’ll feel bad because the price has dropped :)
asus g60jx says:
@noel nuguid: i think crysis warhead will run great on this one. it has slightly better specs than my g60jx which runs crysis in high settings smoothly.
@sylv3rblade: very true. got my g60jx at bestbuy last may for $999.99 and now the price has dropped to $849.99.
Victor says:
I’d rather get an Alienware. MSI copycats. tsk tsk.
mr. bogus says:
alienware wannabe????????????!!!!!!!!!
MSI owner says:
I don’t think the specs can justify the outrageous price. For 110k, you can book a roundtrip ticket to the US (off season) and buy an MSI GX740 or an Asus G73, which are superior in many ways to the GT660. High-end laptops here in the Philippines are terribly overpriced.
A cheaper way to get a gaming laptop is to order them online, ship to a relative, and have your relative ship it to you. You will pay maybe 100-150USD for shipping, but you’ll easily save 30,000Php.
By the way, I’m pretty sure the i7-720QM tops at 1.73ghz running with 3-4 cores, 2.4ghz with 2 cores, and 2.8ghz with one.
Ian says:
Err, MSI has been producing quality laptops for several years now. Cnet reviews called MSI’s previous generation of gaming laptops as *the* gaming laptops to get.
Alienware, though built like a tank and has a lot of sex appeal, is overpriced. MSI has a better price/performance ratio.
Eiji says:
,bkt s asianic GT6600R is 10,900?bkt? Bkt? Bkt? very confused? Check nyo ngaun..bka mali lng cla? Asianic.com.ph
rechelle says:
Eiji
Pay only P 10,348 a Month for 12 months.
Or pay only P 19,598 a Month for 6 months.
Installment promo is available for locally issued credit cards
Ed B. Lledo says:
I’m into CAD and Graphics Rendering, can you please give me a modest specs for 17″ to 18.5″ LED screen laptop, fast processor, good graphics card, RAM, etc. within the price range of P50k. Preferably ASUS, MSI, or Toshiba.
Thanks for your response.
ED
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