MSI G Series GE70 2OE-017US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

This laptop is amazing! Super fast, looks great, solid build. I have been using 17" HD laptops for years and this is the best I have ever used. I bought an miniPCI-E SSD card and used Acronis to move the system image over to it and now it boots SUPER-FAST! The only issues I originally had were figuring out how to scroll with the touch pad. It's like a Macbook, you use two fingers and drag in the reverse direction you want to scroll. Took me forever to figure it out, but it works great. I also couldn't figure out how to force the video card to be the Geforce versus the Intel HD one, so the Windows Experience Index was pretty low (comparatively) until I went in to the Nvidia control panel and changed the 3D default settings. Then, it was zooming (though, no real need for it to always use discrete graphics, so I switched it back).

In the end, everything is great. I love the separate button for the illuminated keyboard and another for the "cooling down mode" which amps up the fans and lowers the laptop temp by 10 or so degrees.

The keyboard feels great. The touchpad is huge and works well (after getting used to it) and there is VERY little bloatware. The MSI utility for creating boot discs also works great (I created a USB key and 4xDVDs).

If you're in the market for a 1200.00-1300.00 performance laptop this is the one.

The screen is beautiful as is the chassis. All around, the best laptop I've ever had.

After several days of getting to know the laptop, I decided to write a review. I apologize for the lengthy review, but there was no way I could just put in a few sentences for a large purchase such as this.

First of all, I'd like to say that the price point for this laptop is amazingly good. Sure, it could have been cheaper, but you'd lose all of the features it had!

Performance wise, it's a great laptop. It dynamically adjusts the clock speeds depending on the load, meaning you'll save a lot of battery. I've seen it run as low as 700 MHz, and I've seen it go all the way up to 3400 MHz The Haswell processor handles it very well, resulting in a very little loss of performance even when you leave it idling and decide to start opening up programs.

When you need the performance, you can expect it with this laptop.

Now moving on to the graphics part The included NVIDIA GTX 765M is nothing to scoff at. Granted, it's a laptop, so you shouldn't expect it to perform as well as a gaming desktop. For all intents and purposes, this card will run everything you need at 1080p in medium to high settings, or sometimes ultra settings! I was able to play several games in 1080p ranging from medium to ultra settings with an absolute minimum of 60 fps.

NVIDIA Optimus is another cool thing on this laptop, it will automatically determine which graphics processor to use. When you want battery life, you can set it so that it'll run on Intel's integrated graphics unit. However, when you want the performance, it'll switch over to the NVIDIA GTX 765M. You can actually see which mode the laptop is running on based on the color of the power button's LED. Blue for integrated, Orange for NVIDIA.

Of course, you can always override this and set it to permanently use integrated graphics or NVIDIA graphics. If needed, you can also configure each program individually to run on integrated graphics or NVIDIA graphics.

I have to comment about the keyboard. When I looked at the pictures, I was concerned that some buttons were cut short (Such as Right Shift, Enter, and Backspace buttons), but after handling the laptop, it proved that it was of no issue. The backlighting, while it didn't look anything like in the pictures, was still decent. It was sufficiently bright, and there was 3 modes. The first 2 modes being on/off, and the third being half lit. Apparently the purpose of this was to illuminate only the keys you'd use during gaming.

The keyboard itself was a pleasure to type on, sharp enough to receive feedback, but soft enough to have that cushioned feel. Also as an added bonus, the wrist area (the space below the keyboard) stays very cool even while playing games!

The display is perfect, there was no dead pixels. Excellent quality and color. The viewing angles are wide enough for me, so I don't have anything to complain here.

The battery life on this laptop is good, but not amazing. I haven't really tested it in different scenarios though. However, at full brightness, I was able to watch a 2 hour long movie before it died. However, I would expect the battery life to dramatically increase when you reduce the brightness and do less intensive tasks.

The temperatures are decent, idling at around 40-45c for the processor and the graphics card. I did run a prime95 stress test, as I wanted to see how hot the processor could get. The CPU did go up to 93c, but did not go beyond that. I don't expect the CPU to get this hot with normal usage or even gaming for that matter. The GPU ran considerably cooler than the CPU though. The hottest temperature I've ever seen it reach was at around 75c.

Now, moving on to the cons:

Even though I know that this is a gaming laptop, the battery life could have been better. I'm really surprised that they only put a 6-Cell battery in this laptop. It was probably to maintain the slim form factor, but still, I feel like this is something they could have improved on.

The USB 3.0 ports are finicky. On the first USB 3.0 port, it would only perform at USB 2.0 speeds, on the other port, it'll perform at USB 3.0 speeds, but disconnect constantly (USB 2.0 devices doesn't disconnect however). A firmware update fixed the USB 2.0 speeds, but it also switched ports I was having issues with, so the first port is now having the disconnections, while the second one works flawlessly. I suspect that this is a firmware issue, and might be fixed at a later date. However, it's not a big issue. It seems like a common problem, not with MSI products, but with USB 3.0 in general.

Also, on Amazon's product description page, it said that there was 3 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports. This is incorrect, there are only *2* USB 3.0 ports.

The "Cooler Boost" function on this laptop barely did anything. It might have knocked the temperatures down by 1 or 2 degrees, but nothing to be amazed about.

This thing attracts a lot of fingerprints. The area below the keyboard, and on the sides of the keyboard, and the lid all attract fingerprints.

Considering the positive aspects of this laptop, coupled with few (very) minor annoyances, this is a great laptop for the money. I would suggest this notebook to anyone who's looking for a laptop that has the performance of a desktop, and the portability of a laptop.

Buy MSI G Series GE70 2OE-017US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black/Red) Now

This laptop runs WoW on ultra no problem, Skyrim, FarCry3 all on highest, and every other game I have thought to try. Pretty large laptop but beautiful screen. DONT try to uninstall windows 8 however because you'll need to order the recovery disks separately to get your windows 8 key back which is hidden in the bios. I did notice however that this machine is overclocked which they should mention before buying it.

Read Best Reviews of MSI G Series GE70 2OE-017US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black/Red) Here

I noticed these notebooks are selling like hotcakes and since I just received mine today, now I know why. I have never considered myself a technically savvy person but this laptop is extremely user friendly. All I had to do was put the battery in and turn on the machine. The software loaded quickly and I was good to go! It comes with an instruction manual which you can find on the desktop once the machine loads all the apps. It is very informative and easy to read. I purchased a Microsoft Office 2013 package since I will be using this mainly for schoolwork.

Want MSI G Series GE70 2OE-017US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black/Red) Discount?

The others reviews must be from MSI because I have had nothing but PROBLEMS with this laptop since the get go.

CONS:

1. The Touchpad is a HEADACHE from the start. BE WARNED! It is so sensitive it will randomly click when you are dragging the mouse

around (VERY ANNOYING) and will always click on the ads or something you don't want to click. I have tried turning down the sensitivity

and every setting does not make it better. You are better off using a wireless mouse..

2. The battery is horribe! It claims it gets 2 hours on a full charge.. but I haven't seen it past 1.5 hours at all the whole 5 months I've had this computer.. If your gaming.. pfft you get maybe 30 minutes if that.

3. The laptop is very slow.. I thought this was a core i7? It is more like a core i3.. It takes FOREVER to do windows updates..

and likes to crash around 15% until you pull the battery out and restart it like 2 times. It will update EVERYTIME you reboot it

and it takes 10 minutes to do system updates.. which is weird because windows 8 still says it hasn't been updated... Really MSI?

Can't you afford some Quality Control?

4. If you don't register the product within 30 days MSI screws you over and doesn't allow you to register it period.. *Wow thanks MSI!!*

What about the new people to computers who don't know your rules??

5. Freezing issues: The laptop likes to FREEZE ALOT! I've had it freeze over 20 times sent i bought it.

6. Wireless Network Aapter: The internet will drop more than a drum beat at a rave!

You have been warned do not buy this laptop. I can't believe a company would even attempt to put this on the market.

Save $0.99 Off