MSI GE40-2OC Dragon Eyes Laptop Review (i7-4702MQ/GTX760M)

The MSI GE-40-2OC Dragon Eyes is a formidable gaming laptop and without doubt the fastest 14 inch machine we have tested to date.

The combination of cutting edge Intel Core i7-4702MQ processor and Nvidia GTX760M graphics ensure that this machine can cope with the latest Direct X 11 games at the native 1600×900 panel resolution.

The Core i7 4702MQ is a very powerful mobile processor. In the Cinema4D test the 4702MQ clearly outperformed the desktop Core i5 2500k processor, which is an achievement in itself. If you have plans to handle video editing or 3D rendering, then the i7 4702MQ is a wise investment.

The Nvidia GTX760M is a fantastic, capable mobile GPU. We tested it with the Metro Last Night engine and we achieved smooth frame rates with high image quality settings at 1600×900. The latest Tomb Raider game also exhibited smooth frame rates throughout, with a very high level of image quality.

The GTX760M is able to power through the latest game engines, without adding a huge cost to the system build. We did notice that a couple of programs didn't force the Nvidia driver to switch from Intel integrated graphics to the GTX760M causing performance issues. Check out the Unigine Valley page in this review for more information on that.

The MSI GE40-2OC Dragon Eyes is a beautifully designed 14 inch laptop and the aluminium covering with ‘Dragon Eyes' is sure to appeal to a wide audience of gamers. It is an attractively understated design, yet the red ‘Dragon Eyes' will catch the attention of anyone looking. The only downside is the constant need for cleaning. As we explained earlier in the review, the surface materials all attract fingerprints easily so a quality cloth should always be kept on hand.

The onboard sound system is reasonably good considering the 14 inch chassis design, although it lacks bass presence and was more enjoyable with a quality pair of headphones hooked into to the machine.

While MSI offer the GE40-2OC with a 1080p Full HD resolution panel, our machine shipped with the 1600×900 screen. The quality of the screen is above average, although I would have liked a few more notches on the brightness slider. The screen doesn't go wonderfully bright, and in high ambient lighting conditions it seems a little underpowered, especially in bright daylight when it proves hard to read small text.

That said, indoors in a dimly lit room the screen exhibits a decent gamut and fine details are accurately rendered. Viewing angles are average, but with a small 14 inch screen we can't imagine multiple people will be sharing the viewpoint. We do like the screen finish, as MSI have decided to opt away from a high gloss, overly reflective coating.

The keyboard is a step above what we would normally expect to see in this specific sector, it offers a little feedback and the keys are a decent size and suitable for even those people with larger than average hands. The only downside is the incorporation of a single height return key which always causes me problems. This is surely personal taste however, so other people may not find this an issue.

There are some negative points which we do need to mention. Due to the high performance hardware inside the chassis, the fan has to work very hard. Noise levels are subsequently higher than we would like, and the underside gets very hot when gaming. For extended use on a lap we would recommend a cooling pad.

While games run well, the ‘out of the box' performance is slightly disappointing however and we will explain why.

MSI have installed a single 8GB SO-DIMM in this machine. Single channel memory throughput is obviously rather poor. We would expect a machine of this configuration to score around 20GB/s in a memory test, but it was closer to 10GB/s. While the powerful i7 4702MQ processor will help compensate, single channel memory will negatively impact bandwidth intensive tasks such as video editing.

My biggest concern with our MSI GE40-2OC Dragon Eyes sample is the lack of Solid State Drive. The 750GB drive rated just below 110MB/s in the sequential tests and it held back the machine on so many levels. MSI promise a configuration of ‘dual SSD with over 900 MB/s speeds', but we aren't even sure if they are selling this option anywhere in the United Kingdom. ARIA, OCUK and SCAN all list our £999.95 inc vat model with a single 750GB 2.5 inch 7,200 rpm drive. In real world terms, the machine takes a full minute to boot up and to become fully responsive in Windows 8. OCUK are listing a new 128GB SSD version with a £100 premium today.

These issues are not helped by the messy default software installation. MSI include a lot of trialware and the adoption of several Norton programs was less than impressive. The PC Checkup software was extremely irritating, popping up messages bottom right to alert us that we were running an intensive program which was hogging either CPU, or hard drive time. This was quickly deinstalled as it was interfering with our benchmarking.

I do like the MSI GE40-2OC Dragon Eyes laptop. If you must have the fastest 14 inch machine capable of handling the latest games then it is certainly a choice worth shortlisting. The choice of single channel memory and slow 2.5 inch mechanical drive mean it cannot score any higher today however.

We are aware that MSI sell more expensive configurations of this machine with dual SSD in RAID 0 but we can only review what we are given. I simply couldn't live with this slow 2.5 inch hard drive so I would need to budget another £100 (at least) for a high performance SSD. Using Acronis cloning software and a USB 3.0 enclosure would mean that I could mirror the internal 7,200 rpm drive and switch it out for the SSD. MSI really should not be selling this machine with such a slow drive however – current prices show that a 750GB 2.5 inch drive is not actually much cheaper than a 64GB SSD, so they should have thought this out in more detail before shipping.

If you are willing to switch out the slow mechanical drive and pay a little extra for a Solid State drive then the MSI GE40-2OC Dragon Eyes would make for a killer high performance gaming system. As it stands, the slow 2.5 inch mechanical drive completely cripples the real world experience.

You can buy the system we reviewed today from OverclockersUK and ARIA in the United Kingdom. Listed at £995.95 inc vat. OverclockersUK are listing a configuration with 128GB SSD for £1,099.99, but sadly we were not sent this model to review.

Pros:

• Nvidia GTX760M kicks ass with the latest Direct X 11 games.
• Intel Core i7 4702MQ is a powerhouse mobile chip.
• excellent keyboard.
• 1600×900 resolution screen.

Cons:

• runs hot.
• quite noisy under load.
• single channel memory.
• slow 2.5 inch mechanical hard drive.
• bloated software install.
• shiny surfaces need constant cleaning.
• single height return key.

Kitguru says: This could have been better with dual channel memory, a fast SSD and a more optimised software install.

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