Hi folks,
I felt some of you might have interest in this amazing new notebook, so below is my initial thoughts, unboxing photos, and performance benchmarks. Also, for more information and better photos, you can visit The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Owner's Lounge. GenTech PC has also done a video review of this notebook, which can be seen HERE.
Enjoy!
Initial thoughts......
Well, here it is..... the MSI GT72-2PE Dominator Pro-007US, and the photos below do not do it justice. It's Bold, it's Bad, it's Fast, it's Powerful, and honestly, there is not much, not to like about this notebook. If there is one thing I feel could have been better, it would be the display. The Chi Mei CMN1735 has good brightness, color, and contrast, but lacks decent viewing angles.
Anyhow, I have already spent a lot of time with tweaking, photos, benchmarks, etc., so I am going to cut-to-the-chase, and try to make this as short as possible.
As to performance, the benchmarks below attest to the GT72's awesomeness, so what about noise, and the redesigned dual-fan cooling solution? Simply put, it is quieter than the GT70, has a better fan profile, and temps are well managed. Given the hardware, of course you will hear the fans spin up when the system is stressed, but it is not at all disturbing..... and when doing common task, the fans are only noticed if you get close and cozy with the system. Ambient room temperature was 78F, and the system's idle temps were CPU@38C, and GPU@36C. Without the use of Cooler Booster ('stock' fan profile only), during benchmarks the CPU reached 78C, and the GPU averaged 80C, peaking to 82C during the 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark. The palm rest remains cool to the touch, it's polymer is smooth as glass, and it's surface is seamless across the touchpad. Only a mild warmth rises from the keyboard.
The Steelseries keyboard is indeed flex-free, keys are very positive and responsive, and the back-lighting is brighter..... which I attribute to the keyboard's re-design. Looks awesome!
So what about SuperRAID 3, is it fast? Oh YEAH! Performance exceeds SuperRAID 2, as expected, and system boots to desktop in as little as 6 to 7 seconds. HD Tune Pro reports an average read time for the Toshiba M.2 SSD's, as 1535MB/s..... while the previous SuperRAID 2 Sandisk X100 mSATA SSD's was an average of 1411MB/s. On the other hand, SuperRAID 3 really shines in the Crystal Disk Mark scores. To best evaluate the 'Real-World' performance of SuperRAID 3, I used the PCMark 8 Storage Test. For those unfamiliar with this benchmark, the performance score of 5014 is very respectable. The duration of this grueling benchmark is generally 1 to 3 hours, and the GT72 sped through in just 1 hour and 8 minutes. All in all, I applaud MSI's use of the new M.2 SSD's, but I think performance will most improve with future 9-Series Intel chipsets.
With all the attributes I've mentioned above, it is when gaming, that you understand the mastery of it's intuitive design. The re-designed flex-free keyboard, the large smooth & heat-free palm rest, the spatial Dynaudio speakers, and vivid display, all lend to an immersive gaming experience. So much so, I found myself playing my test game, far longer than originally intended.
To run the GT72 through it's paces, I chose the recently released, AMD optimized title, Sniper Elite III, by Rebellion. With settings max'ed to 'Ultra', the GTX-880M smoothly sliced through the frames like a hot knife to butter, with frame-rates from 54 to 82Fps, averaging at 65Fps. Game play was extremely smooth and fluid, and never a hic-cup or artifact.
To represent the 'Out-of-the-Box' experience, I played with the stock fan profile, and Cooler Booster was never used. Like with my benchmark testing, the fan noise was not disturbing, and game audio though the Dynaudio speakers easily comes to the forefront. Fan noise was never a distraction. Temps of the GPU peaked to 82C, but averaged 64C, and the CPU peaked at 68C, averaging 54C. Again, with hardware like this, and without the use of Cooler Booster, these temps are outstanding.... and the new dual fan design is a success!
Initially I intended my game session to be an hour..... in no time it became 3+ hours, and playing on this notebook is simply FUN!
The look and feel is very stylish, and smooth finish is actually somewhat fingerprint resistant. Overall, with these great looks, it's fully loaded system specs, and stellar performance scores, the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro not only entitles bragging rights..... it DEMANDS them!
All of this has me VERY excited for the upcoming next-gen 9-Series, Maxwell, X-treme Edition GT72! Can't wait!
I felt some of you might have interest in this amazing new notebook, so below is my initial thoughts, unboxing photos, and performance benchmarks. Also, for more information and better photos, you can visit The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Owner's Lounge. GenTech PC has also done a video review of this notebook, which can be seen HERE.
Enjoy!
Initial thoughts......
Well, here it is..... the MSI GT72-2PE Dominator Pro-007US, and the photos below do not do it justice. It's Bold, it's Bad, it's Fast, it's Powerful, and honestly, there is not much, not to like about this notebook. If there is one thing I feel could have been better, it would be the display. The Chi Mei CMN1735 has good brightness, color, and contrast, but lacks decent viewing angles.
Anyhow, I have already spent a lot of time with tweaking, photos, benchmarks, etc., so I am going to cut-to-the-chase, and try to make this as short as possible.
As to performance, the benchmarks below attest to the GT72's awesomeness, so what about noise, and the redesigned dual-fan cooling solution? Simply put, it is quieter than the GT70, has a better fan profile, and temps are well managed. Given the hardware, of course you will hear the fans spin up when the system is stressed, but it is not at all disturbing..... and when doing common task, the fans are only noticed if you get close and cozy with the system. Ambient room temperature was 78F, and the system's idle temps were CPU@38C, and GPU@36C. Without the use of Cooler Booster ('stock' fan profile only), during benchmarks the CPU reached 78C, and the GPU averaged 80C, peaking to 82C during the 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark. The palm rest remains cool to the touch, it's polymer is smooth as glass, and it's surface is seamless across the touchpad. Only a mild warmth rises from the keyboard.
The Steelseries keyboard is indeed flex-free, keys are very positive and responsive, and the back-lighting is brighter..... which I attribute to the keyboard's re-design. Looks awesome!
So what about SuperRAID 3, is it fast? Oh YEAH! Performance exceeds SuperRAID 2, as expected, and system boots to desktop in as little as 6 to 7 seconds. HD Tune Pro reports an average read time for the Toshiba M.2 SSD's, as 1535MB/s..... while the previous SuperRAID 2 Sandisk X100 mSATA SSD's was an average of 1411MB/s. On the other hand, SuperRAID 3 really shines in the Crystal Disk Mark scores. To best evaluate the 'Real-World' performance of SuperRAID 3, I used the PCMark 8 Storage Test. For those unfamiliar with this benchmark, the performance score of 5014 is very respectable. The duration of this grueling benchmark is generally 1 to 3 hours, and the GT72 sped through in just 1 hour and 8 minutes. All in all, I applaud MSI's use of the new M.2 SSD's, but I think performance will most improve with future 9-Series Intel chipsets.
With all the attributes I've mentioned above, it is when gaming, that you understand the mastery of it's intuitive design. The re-designed flex-free keyboard, the large smooth & heat-free palm rest, the spatial Dynaudio speakers, and vivid display, all lend to an immersive gaming experience. So much so, I found myself playing my test game, far longer than originally intended.
To run the GT72 through it's paces, I chose the recently released, AMD optimized title, Sniper Elite III, by Rebellion. With settings max'ed to 'Ultra', the GTX-880M smoothly sliced through the frames like a hot knife to butter, with frame-rates from 54 to 82Fps, averaging at 65Fps. Game play was extremely smooth and fluid, and never a hic-cup or artifact.
To represent the 'Out-of-the-Box' experience, I played with the stock fan profile, and Cooler Booster was never used. Like with my benchmark testing, the fan noise was not disturbing, and game audio though the Dynaudio speakers easily comes to the forefront. Fan noise was never a distraction. Temps of the GPU peaked to 82C, but averaged 64C, and the CPU peaked at 68C, averaging 54C. Again, with hardware like this, and without the use of Cooler Booster, these temps are outstanding.... and the new dual fan design is a success!
Initially I intended my game session to be an hour..... in no time it became 3+ hours, and playing on this notebook is simply FUN!
The look and feel is very stylish, and smooth finish is actually somewhat fingerprint resistant. Overall, with these great looks, it's fully loaded system specs, and stellar performance scores, the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro not only entitles bragging rights..... it DEMANDS them!
All of this has me VERY excited for the upcoming next-gen 9-Series, Maxwell, X-treme Edition GT72! Can't wait!
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