KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
MSI have a wide range of laptops for the enthusiast user and today we are looking at the rather sexy multimedia based CX623, complete with Core i5 460m, LED screen and nVidia 310M.
In a perfect world, everyone would be equipped with a £3,000 laptop, but sadly in the real world, budgets are much tighter – especially with the state of the economy in 2011. The system today will appeal to a wide demographic as MSI are able to load the CX623 with performance hardware but hold the price at £619.99.
Specifications:
• Display: 15.6” 1366×768 Gloss
• CPU: Intel i5-460M 2.53GHz
• Hard Drive: 500GB
• Optical Drive: BluRay
• Memory Supplied: 4GB DDR3
• Operation System: Windows 7 HP 64bit
• Graphics Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce G310M Optimus 1GB
The MSI CX623 arrives in a rather plain looking box with some information on the product down the side.
The bundle is comprehensive. Software discs and a lot of literature on the product and the MSI range.
The battery is a 4400mAh, 49 Wh 11.V model, rather small in physical stature, but chunky.
The Power Supply is a small unit, designed by Delta Electronics with a 19V, 3.42A output.
The CX623 is shipped with a protective felt cloth between the keyboard and screen.
First impressions are positive, everything is a high gloss finish (including the screen) which will appeal to a wide audience.
The whole chassis is based around a glossy ‘pinstripe' finish which is rather attractive. We aren't that happy with the oversized sticker to the left of the trackpad but it should be able to be removed easily enough. We find it slightly amusing to see the screen described as ‘glare type' on the sticker which roughly translates to a ‘high gloss finish'.
Connectivity is rather spartan on both sides of the laptop, with a BluRay drive installed on the right, behind a USB 2.0 port (ideal position for a mouse).
On the left are several card media slots, headphone and microphone jacks and a 10/100/1000 lan port. At the back is a cooling port which expels the hot air.
Along the rear is an eSATA/USB 2.0 hybrid port, another USB 2.0 port and HDMI and VGA out. There is a security fitting and a power connector feed here also.
The trackpad is finished in the same pinstripe design as the rest of the chassis with a row of buttons in front which show status of various laptop functionality. Along the top right is the power button and two keys which can be programmed to open software installed.
The ‘chiclet' keyboard is very pleasant to use and offers a reasonable level of user feedback, although we noticed a fair amount of flex in the middle.
Below is a video showing the keyboard flexing when under heavy typing pressure.
If you buy one of these there is a ‘warranty void' sticker over one of the screws so be aware!
The internal design is nothing radical, both CPU and GPU are cooled via heatpipes which lead away to a block which is cooled by a fan. There is an exhaust at the right here to expel the hot air.
This system is nVidia Optimus capable which means it has a dual system of Intel HD graphics and Nvidia Geforce 310M. The Intel HD graphics operate when not under load, and when the demand requires it, the nvidia solution takes over.
The wireless antenna and the 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue Hard drive. These are fantastic 2.5 inch hard drives, being one of the quietest on the market. It also incorporates the Western Digital ShockGuard technology to protect the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
4GB of DDR3 memory is installed, running in dual channel mode. This is A-Data HY73I1B0873Zs running at 1066mhz (it is capable of running at 1333mhz).
When the system is first powered on, it goes through the MSI configuration for first time set up. You get the option to install a variety of software from a list – an option we really like, as you can remove some of the prebundled items if you wish.
If you choose to install everything, the list above shows a ‘full install suite'. We aren't sure everyone will want the ArcSoft bundled package or Norton Internet Security, but apart from this, the install is relatively clean.
A total score of 4.6 with the Windows Experience Index gives an early indication of a high performance, balanced laptop. The limiting factor is not the mechanical harddrive, but the nVidia 310M graphics solution.
Today we will be comparing the CX623 to several other systems we have reviewed in the past. The ASRock Ion3D system, to give an indication of potential benefits when upgrading from an ATOM powered computer, and the MSI FX 600 Laptop, which features an Intel Core i3 330M processor.
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
Already, it is clear to see that the Core i5 processor is significantly more powerful than the Core i3 in the MSI FX600, with the Atom trailing in the dust. Memory throughput is also quite impressive for a mid range laptop configuration.
PCMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed for Windows Vista offering one-click simplicity for casual users and detailed, professional grade testing for industry, press and enthusiasts.
A PCMark score is a measure of your computer’s performance across a variety of common tasks such as viewing and editing photos, video, music and other media, gaming, communications, productivity and security.
From desktops and laptops to workstations and gaming rigs, by comparing your PCMark Vantage score with other similar systems you can find the hardware and software bottlenecks that stop you getting more from your PC.
Solid all round performance, with even the mechanical hard drive scoring reasonably well at just under 3000 points.
A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance so we used two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the Western Digital 2.5 inch Scorpio Blue SATA drive.
Hard Drive performance while lacking compared to a Solid State unit, is pretty good for a mechanical 2.5 inch unit. It is extremely quiet, but we would probably replace the product with an SSD, given the option.
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.
CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.
A good result for a mobile processor – it isn't often we see a score above 2 points with this benchmark within a mobile environment.
Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our Bluray and conversion tests.
Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the Blu-Ray experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the Bluray Disc of Avatar, one of our favourite sci-fi films in recent years.
Some of you might have been expecting the CX623 to outperform the FX600 in this test, however the FX600 has the nVidia GT 325M onboard, a more powerful graphics solution than the 310M on the CX623. This additional GPU power helps to make up for the slightly weaker processor.
We then recorded the CPU demand over a specific set of time to get a ‘real world’ rolling scale of activity. The Core i5 processor is easily capable of delivering a fantastic HD media experience.
Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.
The Core i5 processor maintains CPU usage between 6 percent and 28 percent, averaging 22 percent overall. No problems at all with the HD YouTube experience.
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.
Now you can easily playback and display your favorite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.
New and Improved Features
- Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
- Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
- Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
- Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
- Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
- Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.
For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power.
Cyberlink Espresso refused to accept the nVidia 310M as a viable platform for video acceleration, even with the latest update. The final time is down to the Intel Core i5 processor, alone.
We are now going to test the USB 3.0 and 2.0 speed, so we used the fastest drive we have, the Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB, which is an Toshiba based SSD product within a USB 3.0 capable enclosure.
Today for testing we first copied a 3.9GB MKV file to and from the Kingston HyperX USB 3.0 drive.
USB 2.0 performance is right up there with the best of the laptops we have tested to date.
Next we created a 3GB folder of mixed sized files, this is to reproduce a real world scenario – many users have folders of word documents, picture files and even database documents.
A good set of results, not quite as fast as we have seen before on other desktop based systems, but well in line with mid range laptop performance.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation’s award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States; it launched November 20 in Europe. It builds upon the cooperatively-focused gameplay of the original and uses Valve’s proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in Left 4 Dead. The game made its world premiere at E3 2009 with a trailer during the Microsoft press event.
In a similar fashion to the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign’s finale.
We tested at 720p and all other settings on maximum. AA and AF were disabled.
Left 4 Dead 2 runs quite well, as long as you leave the Anti Aliasing disabled. This is not being sold as a gaming laptop, but it seems reasonably capable if you don't mind running with lower settings.
Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.
Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.
We tested at 720p in DX9 mode with settings on full. AA was disabled.
Not killer performance, by any stretch of the imagination, but again, with low settings, the frame rate is acceptable.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.
Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together.
We also attached 5 diodes to the rear of the machine to measure the load temperatures of various parts of the chassis. These were measured after 1 hour of intensive work.
The underside of the laptop is generally quite cool, with only ZONE 1 becoming noticeably warm after extended load. This is because the radiated heat from both the CPU and GPU are passed across heatpipes to this area then heat is forced outside the chassis via the fan.
The CX623 is comfortable to use, unless you are pushing the CPU to 100% for long periods of time. The cooling system is great.
This machine is marketed as a ‘media based' machine, but its more than capable of being used as a business oriented workhorse. Therefore battery life is an important aspect for a possible purchase.
To test the battery today we put the machine through two sets of real world situations. One as a media movie lover on the move, a person wanting to watch HD media on a train journey or bus with two thirds screen brightness (any less and quality suffers). Secondly as a business man, using the machine for productivity with wireless enabled and balanced power settings with a mid way (around half) brightness setting.
Battery life is fantastic, we managed to almost squeeze 5 hours out of the system under general/light use. Watching HD movies lowered battery life considerably, but it still managed to last for almost 2 and a half hours. The nVidia Optimus technology really does help increase system life.
We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
Under normal conditions the CX623 is a very quiet laptop. Surfing the net, working in Microsoft Office all generate noise levels under 30 dBa which is excellent. When loading the system hard, the fan spins up to keep the internals within the set parameters and it becomes clearly audible. The whirring fan is positioned at the left of the chassis and the air flow can be quite strong when it gets hotter. It never becomes that intrusive however.
The MSI CX623 is a great laptop and one which we can easily recommend if you are in the market for a high performance media or business laptop. Gamers will need to look elsewhere however as the nVidia G310M is a rather weak solution for HD gaming. Sure, you can game at lower settings, but the image quality won't be that impressive.
As a media system, the unit excels in all key areas, the screen quality is fantastic with only a slight blue cast showing any signs of weakness. Vibrancy is fantastic and text quality is up there with the best we have seen. The glossy screen can be slightly detracting, but for a media laptop it is a must. Vertical viewing angles can be slightly limited, but this is generally the case with a mid range laptop.
The keyboard and track pad offer a great experience, with the only negative being a certain amount of flex in the middle of the board, especially when pressed down hard. If you are rough with a keyboard we might have a few, long term concerns, but otherwise its responsive and looks great.
The pinstripe finish won't be to everyone's taste, but it certainly helps it stand out within such a crowded market and almost everyone we spoke with seems to think it is an attractive machine.
Internally, the combination of Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD/nVidia G310M is a great choice, although we were disappointed to see that Cyberlink's Espresso software wouldn't allow the graphics to act in a hardware acceleration role (even with updated software and drivers).
Thankfully, MSI haven't skimped with the choice of harddrive, and the Western Digitial Scorpio Blue delivers excellent performance without generating a racket. You would be hard pressed to hear it, even when writing a lot of data to the platters. Personally, I would still exchange it for an SSD, because once you go to flash storage, it is extremely difficult to go back. Obviously this would add a cost to the overall system so it makes sense for MSI to opt for the 500GB mechanical unit. Sadly, if you upgrade the drive yourself and open the chassis, you invalidate the warranty – an unusual move from MSI and one we have never seen before.
Overall, this is a great media laptop which will please a wide portion of the audience. Just be sure not to purchase it as a dedicated gaming machine as graphics power is not one of the primary strengths.
KitGuru says: A high gloss system with a competitive asking price of £620 inc vat. Well worth a look.
Great looking laptop, not so sure about the keyboard flex, although more laptops seem to have this problem now. it is down to cut price support beams or something?
The pinstripe is cool, liked the close up shot. interesting how they make the pattern with dots.
Good battery life, seems all round very impressive, apart from hardcore gaming.
If they sold this with a better GFX id be all over it.
Excellent, I actually saw this in PCWORLD over here last week, and was t empted, but I wasnt sure about the performance. Hey whats with MSI putting a warranty void over the screw? thats a bad move, how are we meant to upgrade it? send it back to them for an extra cost 🙁 that pissed me off.
310M seems to suck hard. rest of it is good however. but id need something more beefy for my laptop in gaming side.
Not many ports down the sides, id like 3 USBs, 2 on one side and 1 on the other, not most of them on the back, its a pain to get there. a few other ideas I like with the design, but that pinstripe thing would hurt my eyes.
Good review, battery life is impressive considering the power of the CPU. Im not keen on the styling myself, it loks like a toshiba machine I had years ago.
What about the build quality? it looks ok, but are all the parts fitted well?
Not for me, im a sony man through and through
Temps are good and battery life. the pros outweigh the cons, shame about the lackluster gfx performance.
I have had a MSI 3 series laptop for years now and have no intention of replacing it. I only surf and play flash gameson the move. I can recommend them as a laptop they rock.
For 600 quid it seems fairly good although acer do a machine with a better gfx and the same CPU for 650.
I like it, its better than my desktop machine right now 🙁 im poor !
The overall machine looks like it would burn your eyes out in sunlight, so many reflective surfaces. good job getting the pictures taken without burning all the surfaces out! Not my scene really I like alienware.
MSI make great machines, i love their gear.
i bought this laptop yesterday from an ebay saller for 415pounds new i think i made a good deal 😉
I had one last two day … its stupied laptop .. its said it will switch to nidia GPU with it have load gaming and it didnt most time + you can not switch to 1 gb nvidia card manully or by and way ..there is no way to switch manully btween GPU in it .. I which i can sell it with helf price ..its ig lose