MSI GT70 0NC Pro Reviews

Complete overkill, but this is the most powerful gaming laptop we’ve ever seen

I’m torn. The MSI GT70 is a fair deal, offering strong performance (for a gaming laptop) without much in the way of caveats. The keyboard is excellent, the speakers pump out loud, solid audio, and the trackpad is precise and responsive. It certainly isn’t as chic as the Razer Blade, but you’ll ultimately get better performance (thanks to Ivy Bridge and a newer GPU) without spending too much. And therein lies the rub. Unless you’re dead set on hauling a behemoth to gaming events fairly regularly, I’d honestly recommend building your own PC; you can choose your own parts, and get better performance for less. It’s also incredibly easy, just follow our guide if you’re at all unsure. If you'd prefer to to have someone else handle building and maintaining your PC, you could pick up a gaming rig with superior specs and a decent display, and still have a bit of cash left over for some games. Of course, you'd lose out on that nebulous portability factor, but you probably won't be toting this 8.6-pound machine around much anyway. That said, if you must spend your money on a PC gaming platform you can take with you, the MSI GT70 will not disappoint.

If it's extreme mobile performance you're after, look past the current surge of Ultrabooks and take a long hard glance at MSI's GT70. Designed primarily for gaming and doubling as an extremely-capable multimedia workstation, this behemoth demands attention by combining a third-generation Intel Core processor with high-end NVIDIA graphics and a RAID SSD storage system. Needless to say, the hardware configuration delivers outstanding performance; the GT70 feels lightning quick during everyday use, and it quite happily plays the latest games on a bright, full-HD 17.3 display that's thoroughly enjoyable when viewed head on. MSI has paid close to attention to each underlying component - everything from the Blu-ray writer to the backlit keyboard and Dynaudio 2.1 sound system is in position to impress - but the overall package is tainted by a mostly-plastic chassis that's behind the times and a couple of niggling issues that aren't befitting a £2,100 system.

Though it has minor flaws, this desktop replacement's performance and gaming, not to mention its good battery life, are very appealing.

While the MSI GT70 was on par with, or even better than the M17X R3 in our performance benchmarks, when it came to our gaming benchmarks, it was a bit underwhelming occasionally, losing - by as much as 20% in Dirt 3 on the Ultra High setting - in two out of three games. Turbo Drive Engine did provide a small boost to performance however, which may mean that there's some extra headroom to be squeezed out of the GT70 with the right tweaking. On the whole, we were quite satisfied with the MSI GT70's overall performance, experience and usability, especially for it's price point. Though if we had to suggest a key area for improvement, we really hope the notebook could have been made slimmer and lighter. It's a tall order, but that's perhaps the next big leap to be made for gaming notebooks. Samsung's Series 7 700GA managed to pull that off last year and it still delivered comparable gaming performance to this new MSI GT70 notebook. Of course, we haven't yet seen what Dell or the other gaming notebook manufacturers will do with their Ivy Bridge model updates, so it still remains to be seen how the MSI GT70 will fare compared to other Ivy Bridge gaming notebooks. For now, MSI is one of the earliest in this group of products and if you really need a powerful and up-to-date gaming notebook fast, you can't go wrong with it (if you don't mind its bulk).

All in all, while the styling might be considered amateurish, and some minor idiosyncrasies exist, MSI has put together an all-around winning package in the MSI GT70. Its 5-hour-plus battery life sets it apart from other high-performance heavyweights.

While the GT70 wraps itself around the latest technologies, its build impressed us most. The keyboard, trackpad, chassis and speakers all bleed quality, sidestepping so many of the common sins that PC makers commit. This finely crafted icing make its screaming performance that much sweeter. Yes, we can fault it for its less-than-ideal screen and horrendously loud "cooler boost" fan overdrive, but the straw we're grasping is brittle, and it makes a poor bed. At $2,000, the MSI GT70 isn't going to fit in everybody's budget, but it offers few compromises in exchange. Our only caveat is that it's the first Ivy Bridge gaming laptop out of the gate, and with inevitable price drops and looming competition, it may be worth waiting for the slow and steady to catch up. Then again, if you need to have the latest and greatest now, it would be a gross understatement to say you could do worse.

MSI lures potential customers with numerous interesting features. While it is now good form to install a high quality Full HD screen, a quality sound system is still a rarity. The collaboration with Dynaudio was definitely worthwhile: Few machines offer comparable quality. The two mSATA SSDs are another selling point. The RAID0 array strikes with an excellent transfer rate: A mainstream model can only dream of 800 MB/s (sequential read). Generally, MSI puts value on the performance. A 16 GB DDR3 RAM and a quad core processor from Intel's new Ivy Bridge generation equip the user perfectly for the next few years. The RAID0 SSDs are a mixed bag. They provide excellent performance for sequential transfers, but poor seek times during random transfers. Thus, your mileage will vary depending on your workload. Games generally depend on large files rather than small ones, so you should see good performance there.

Intel's new "Ivy Bridge" CPU and a super-trick SSD RAID storage system make MSI's GT70 0NC-011US laptop a hardcore gamer's bargain at $2,000.

Overall, the performance of the MSI GT70 was very impressive—definitely for the price, but also in a larger sense. As you can see from the scores, this kind of blazing performance means you can indulge in gaming and/or multitasking to your heart's content. The fan got a little loud, and the optical drive buzzed more than we would have liked, but this machine can play almost any game you throw at it and do so at relatively high settings. As far as built-in software goes, the MSI GT70 comes with a few of the usual media applications you may never use, like Magix’s Photo Manager 9, Music Maker 16, and Video Easy SE. (We're guessing that you already have your favorites for these kinds of tasks.) The THX TruStudio Pro program we mentioned earlier is a more practical inclusion, especially for those interested in hooking up external speakers to this laptop. And then there's the lighting manager for the keyboard, plus CyberLink's fun YouCam for use with the HD Webcam. One onscreen item particular to this laptop is the S-Bar, a shortcut control bar that sits at the top of the desktop. It seems a bit redundant, since most of its functions can be accomplished with the function keys. Still, it's nice to have options, and the S-Bar is actually one of the least-offensive shortcut docks we've come across.