Finding balance between a good gaming system and portable notebook is a difficult endeavor. There are plenty of 15.6" or 17" screen systems out there that are able to pack the highest performing components inside, but leave your shoulder/back aching. On the other side of the spectrum, there are a number of sleek, ultra book class notebooks that are easy to carry, but leave you wanting more performance. I needed a high performance notebook that allows me to multi-task and game a bit while away from home. The MSI GE40 is a nice compromise between the two categories with a few caveats.Design:
Weighing in at 4.4ish pounds, the GE40 is quite light for what it packs inside. The palm rest and lid are a brushed aluminum. The lid has eye-catching red LEDs in the form of "dragon eyes". The rest of the body is comprised of your standard glossy plastic that attracts finger prints, but isn't handled all that often in everyday use. There is more flex in the palm rest and keyboard than a full aluminum chassis, but it doesn't scream poor quality.
Screen:
My main issue with the GE40 is the quality of the screen. While it does feature a high 1600x900 resolution for a 14" screen, it is an average TN panel with OK viewing angles. This evaluation is quite subjective although I personally think the vertical viewing angles are quite poor. You will need to view the screen dead or the images will be washed out. This left me a little frustrated trying to watch netflix on my bed.
Performance:
With a high wattage Intel Haswell Quad-core 4th generation processor, it chews through everything quite quickly. The lower wattage CPUs in ultrabooks are primarily designed for battery longevity with decent performance. The difference between Apple's latest generation Macbook air with it's 15W Dual-Core CPU and the GE40 is very noticeable in the programs that I use (namely Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, transcode applications). The dynamic overclocking of the CPU also allows lightly threaded applications to take advantage of higher clock speeds whilst putting the unused cores to sleep.
The graphics duties are shared between the integrated intel HD4600 and a dedicated NVIDIA GTX 760M. The switching is handled with NVIDIA's optimus tech. The integrated graphics are powerful enough to handle the Windows GUI acceleration, Flash, and movie playback to conserve power and reduce heat generation. The GTX 760M kicks in when you launch a full screen 3D application, allowing you to take advantage of a large performance increase. The GTX 760M did a great job of providing acceptable frame rates at the native resolution in the games I play. For specific numbers, look up the GTX 760M on Notebookcheck.com
The included 750GB 7200RPM hard disk drive is another low point of the system. I am aware of the upgraded model of the GE40 that features a 128GB solid state drive (SSD), but I opted for this model as I was planning to purchase my own SSD with more capacity. Booting into Windows is slow as is opening most applications, especially concurrently. This is problem is compounded with the preinstalled Norton security software that constantly scans on startup and application access. I've already swapped the HDD with a Sandisk Extreme II that has increased the responsiveness exponentially and plan on purchasing a HDD module to replace the DVD-Rom drive.
While the GE40 has 8GB of DDR3-Low Voltage memory installed, it is a single DIMM. This is both a plus and minus. With a single DIMM, you drop your effective bandwidth to 10GB/ps for the CPU and integrated GPU. You'll be hard pressed to see a noticeable drop in performance, but this is supposed to be a high end system. On the other hand, if you were planning to go to a total of 16GB of RAM, you won't have to buy x2 8GB DIMMs. Just grab 1 8GB DIMM and you'll get your dual channel memory performance.
Preinstalled Software:
Windows 8: You either love it or hate it. I personally like Microsoft's new OS due to the faster performance and support for new hardware technologies. I'm not a fan of the Start Screen, but that's easily remedied with a third party start menu replacement. The product key for Windows is integrated into the UEFI BIOS of the system so you won't need to enter a key during Windows setup. Just activate once you've reinstalled the OS.
As I mentioned before, Norton and other trialware is preinstalled. You'll be greeted with a number of desktop cluttering icons and background services taking up system resources. It isn't nearly as bad as some, but again, this is a gaming system that shouldn't have junk preinstalled to begin with.
I personally reinstalled Windows 8 after installing an extra 8GB DIMM and a SSD to replace the HDD. Be prepared to download the wireless LAN drivers beforehand as Windows 8 doesn't come with them out of the box. There are also a plethora of other drivers that need to be reinstalled to restore full functionality (Bluetooth, WLAN switch, ETC).
Noise/Heat:
In normal operation, the notebook is a bit warm to the touch and the fan constantly runs at a slight hum. The fan is audible, but not overtly or annoyingly so. When gaming, the notebook does get hot. Not unbearably so, but it isn't super comfortable. The fan kicks it into high gear and is very noisy. I was able to hear it every between explosions in game with my headphones on. Both the heat and noise levels are to be expected, especially with the amount of performance packed into such a small chassis.
Overall evaluation:
The MSI GE40 is a great notebook that fills my needs well. The balance of portability and performance allows me to finish my work quickly to get a little bit of play in. If you can cram your programs and games onto a 128GB SSD, you'll find more value in the upgraded version of the GE40. Otherwise both notebooks can stand to have an additional 8GB of memory and a clean install of Windows to maximize its performance and your enjoyment.
Update 7/10/2013:
I was curious if I could get the thermals down a bit, so I opened up my notebook again to see what kind of job MSI did with the thermal paste. As I suspected, they put way too much on which was hindering the heat transfer from the CPU and dedicated GPU to the heatpipe assembly. I'm sure it's their policy that it's better to have too much than too little.
Dis-assembly was not that difficult; 8 philips screws and the fan and heatpipe was easily removed. I cleaned up the factory paste and wiped the CPU/GPU and heatpipe with some isotropic alcohol. I then applied a thin layer of artic silver 5 and put it all back together. Subjectively, the notebook runs cooler. The fan spins slower at idle and comes back down from 100% quicker after playing a game. The palm rest and WASD keys were also a bit cooler. I didn't record before and after temperatures, but there are a couple youtube videos detailing this modification and the tangible results.
If you are comfortable performing this procedure, I wholeheartedly recommend doing it. You're left palm and wrist will thank you.
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