MSI GT680 Gaming Laptop Review (SSD/Bluray/i7/Nvidia)

The bios is well laid out, although it is pretty basic and doesn't allow for many fine tuning options.

A basic overview of the main panels within the GT680 bios.

When the system is first started, user intervention is required, to fine tune the software installation, as can be seen above.

With a complete software installation, the image above shows all the programs that are installed ‘out of the box'. Not a bad install, but a little bloated for our particular tastes.

Thanks to the use of the Intel SSD, the overall score is very high, not being limited to a mechanical drive.

System validation is available over here

Our review system is based around the Intel i7-2630QM processor which is a 4 physical & 4 logical core design running at 2ghz with a maximum turbo frequency of 2.9ghz. It has a 6MB cache and is built on 32nm lithography with a maximum TDP of 45W. There is 8GB of DDR3 memory installed in this machine, running at 1333mhz, but it can accept up to 16GB of memory, if your pockets are deep enough. The Nvidia GTX460M is a capable ‘mid range' mobile graphics solution and it is Direct X 11 capable.

Various configurations are being sold on Scan – our review system costs £1,547 inc vat.

Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
ASRock Ion3D – Atom D525 @ 1.8ghz
MSI FX600 – Intel Core i3 330M
MSI FX623 – Intel Core i5 460M

Software:
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
PCMark Vantage
PCMark 11
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
HD Tach
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
HQV Benchmark V2
Alien V Predator
Total War Shogun 2
Dead Space 2
Dirt 3

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Kill A Watt Meter
Nikon D300S SLR with R1C1 Kit.
Panasonic Lumix TZ10

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