MSI GS70 Stealth Review

[Rashkae]

Just picked up my MSI GS70 Stealth today to replace my old Razer Blade 2012. Here's my own unpacking and quick hands on. Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

Quick tech specs:
21.8 mm thin
2.65 kilograms
(yes, that's slimmer and lighter than a Razer Blade pro and a Macbook pro)

Core i7-4700HQ Haswell
GeForce GTX 765m
12GB RAM
2x128GB SSD in Striped RAID (RAID 0) and a 750GB Data HDD
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Cinema Audio


Unboxing:
The GS70 comes in a big, plain, unassuming brown box.

Inside the box, we get the GS70 in it's own small box, and a MSI Dragon-branded backpack to carry the GS70 around. This is free, and you don't need to pay a premium for a fitting carrying case! *cough* Razer *cough*

Inside the box, we see the well-wrapped and protected GS70 as well as the compartments for the power brick, the accessories CD, and the provided MSI Gaming mouse.

 

[Rashkae]

Speaking of the MSI mouse, it's themed like the GS70 but it's the sort of mouse I'd just chuck into a drawer as an absolute emergency backup. It stinks, and can't touch the R.A.T./Logitech/Razer/etc mice.

The power brick is not as slim, svelte and lightweight as the Razer Blade's piece of beautiful engineering (say what you will about Razer, they got this right!), but it's much smaller than the power bricks from most other gaming notebooks.

And of course there's the prerequitite plastic bag with all the CDs, quickstart guide, basically everything we always ignore.

 

[Rashkae]

So, now let's get to the best part, unwrapping the beauty.

Freed from the cardboard:

And another layer of protection:

Aaaaaand another:

Ah! Finally! But that plastic cover came off immediately. You can already see the MSI Dragon logo is a prevalent design philosophy.

 

[Rashkae]

Taking a look at the bottom, we can see some extra vents, a felt-lined area to protect you from the hottest areas on the laptop (nice touch, MSI) as well as the vents for the built-in subwoofer. Yes, you read that right. It's a 2.1 sound system (more on that later).

Here is the beauty exposed, with some clear resemblances to the Razer Blade - much like a red-headed cousin...

Almost all the stickers are on that clear strip at the bottom, so one pull and she's cleaned up nicely:

Do note that the L/R speakers are right under the monitor, and the holes above the keyboard are air intakes.


On the right side we have a tiny, almost invisible reset hole (paperclip size), 2 USB 3.0 ports, and SD Card reader (which Razer does not have...) the power port, Kensington lock and the air vent for the GPU. A note on the air vents: They try to blast the air upwards at 45 degrees to get it away from being sucked back into the laptop.

On the left side we have the other air vent, the LAN port, HDMI and 2 Display ports (for a total of 3 external displays... aaaaah I can already think of what do do...) 2 more USB 3.0 ports for a total of 4 USB 3.0 ports, and the configurable headphone/line-in/mic ports for the SoundBlaster Cinema DAC. Another note: MSI says they've put in an amp in the headphone jack, and I've tested it with a few of my larger cans and the GS70 had zero issues powering them.

 

[Rashkae]

Powering up the GS70 tells you a lot... It's FAST. I mean, it's REALLY FAST. It took less than 6 seconds to go from pressing the power button to the desktop. Photoshop CS6 started in seconds. Blink and it's done. That RAID SSD setup is working it's magic.

The Steelseries keyboard is fantastic, exactly what you'd expect from Steelseries. The keys are responsive with just the right amount of resistance, and the generous real estate allows for full-sized direction keys as well as a full numerical keypad. The keys have an Alienware-esque lighting scheme that is customizable.

As expected, the MSI logo at the back glows when the laptop is switched on.

Sound:
The sound is a huge surprise. The 2.1 speaker with the Creative SoundBlaster Cinema system creates a spacious soundstage with decent bass and good volume. A pleasant surprise, especially from such a slim system. I wish more notebook manufacturers would follow this route, it's really a pleasure to watch movies, etc with this sound system.


Some quick benchmarks:

CrystalDiskMark:

Yes. That's fast. Stupid fast.


3dMark 11:

Now to load up XCom and Mechwarrior Online and frag!!!

 

[souler87]

Nice unboxing review... It Be good if you can show the temp.

 

[Shakespeare]

Thank you for this! Going to get mine later today

 

[watzup_ken]

Great review man! But yeah, I will be more interested in any throttling and its thermals, which is usually a point of concern for slim chassis.

 

[James Tang]

Looks not bad. Used an MSI gaming notebook before, it works as it was advertised and lasted me for more than 3 years (still working now even though I have moved to Asus and Aftershock). Definitely a work horse

 

[evq]

Thank you for this! Going to get mine later today

Getting mine today too

 

[Rashkae]

Great review man! But yeah, I will be more interested in any throttling and its thermals, which is usually a point of concern for slim chassis.

So far no issues. Yeah it can get toasty after a few hours of MechWarrior but I've not felt any throttling yet. Any preferred utility you want me to run to monitor it?

 

[freakerknoid]

This is one sexy looking laptop, With it the raid ssd, gtx 765m and for a reasonable price. Too bad i already got a gaming laptop or this will be top of my list.

 

[finclk82]

this is a good model for those who value other aspects like slimness, weight, chioness etc.

 

[noobzpro]

where can see demo unit? msi international warranty?

 

[evq]

where can see demo unit? msi international warranty?

First yr international, 2nd year local as what I was told

 

[ioiioi]

Hi Rashkae, may I know where did you purchase this? Online? or local store?
Thanks!

 

[Shinji Hue]

whats the temp like under load?

my old MSI GX640 is trashy as it gets damn hot under load.

 

[Shakespeare]

Check out this thread, there was a pc dreams pre-order on the MSI GS70

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/g...gaming-laptop-pre-launch-special-4320837.html

Hi Rashkae, may I know where did you purchase this? Online? or local store?
Thanks!

 

[evq]

Boy, the start up ready fast!!

 

[watzup_ken]

Boy, the start up ready fast!!

Haha. It is always very fast when its new man. Anyway, enjoy!