MSI FX600 Laptop Review (with nVidia Optimus Technology)

1. Introduction2. The MSI FX600 Laptop (Bundle)3. The MSI FX600 Laptop (External)4. The MSI FX600 Laptop (Internal & Software)5. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra6. Synthetic: PC Mark Vantage7. Synthetic: HDTach & CrystalMark8. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit9. Real World: BluRay Playback with Cyberlink Power DVD 10 Ultra10. Real World: Flash HD Playback Performance11. Real World: Media Encoding with Cyberlink Espresso12. Real World: File Copying with Kingston HyperX Max 3.013. Gaming: Left4Dead 2 (Direct X 9)14. Gaming: Resident Evil 5 (Direct X 9/10)15. Technical: Thermal Dynamics16. Technical: Battery Life17. Technical: Acoustics Performance18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

A single panel is held in place by 7 or 8 screws and once this is removed we can see the FX600, up close and personal. Several large heatpipes run across the width of the machine to keep the components cool.

The hard drive, is a 500GB Toshiba product which while offering plenty of storage is only a 5,400 rpm unit.

There are two 2GB DDR3 ram modules installed which is a perfect partner for the 64 bit Windows operating system.

At the top left is the wireless card – an Intel Link 1000 product offering a wide array of support.

On the far right (from the back) is a fan housing which is connected to a dual heatpipe system. This is next to a vented area to allow for hot air to escape directly out the rear and side. Both processor and graphics are cooled by this. We will look later into the cooling performance.

The layout is a proven design which should work well long term. We know a lot of people never remove the rear covering of their laptop, but we always tend to blow out the fan system on these computers with a quality air duster a couple of times a year, at least.

The MSI FX600 has both Intel HD and Vidia GT 325M dedicated graphics onboard with 1GB of GDDR3.

When you first start the machine, MSI have the software suite specially configured to offer prompts to the user. If you don't wish any of the software installed you can tell the machine to use a barebones configuration. I enabled installation of all software, which you can see in the image above. I like the fact they are allowing the user to choose, and I hope more manufacturers switch to this way of thinking.

A strong windows rating, let down by the hard drive, which we expected as it is a low performance 2.5 inch Toshiba 5,400 rpm drive.

Today we will be comparing against an Intel Atom powered ASRock Ion3d system which we reviewed last month. This is a good way to be able to measure potential upgrade benefits if you are finding your current Atom powered laptop too slow.

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