View Full Version : MSI notebooks


ToTaL
Tue, 14th Sep '04, 11:04am
Hi! I have found cheap MSI notebook, with radeon 9600 graphics. Since we dont have many centrino based notebooks with such graphics here (i have seen only ACER here with such conf), i am very interested in this one. But i dont have much experience with MSI notebooks, since they are relatively new. So anybody here can tell me about them few words? And also, is there big difference between radeon 9600 and 9700? Since i had only nVidia graphics up to now. And what do you thing about Acer while we are on this subject ;)

Thank you!

Darkthrone
Tue, 14th Sep '04, 12:46pm
I don't really know the notebooks MSI or Acer build. As far as the graphics are concerned, here are some Benchmarks FYI:

Unreal Tournament 2003 "Antalus FlyBy" 1024x786x32 Bit
Radeon 9600 XT (Desktop) 108,6 (fps)
Radeon 9600 (Desktop) 65,5
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra (Desktop) 127,0
Radeon 9700 Mobility 128 MB 93,8
Radeon 9600 Mobility 64 MB 75,8
Geforce FX 5650 Go 128 MB 94,3

Aquamark 3:
Radeon 9600 XT (Desktop) 31.057
Radeon 9600 (Desktop) 20.285
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra (Desktop) 29.353
Radeon 9700 Mobility 128 MB 27.540
Radeon 9600 Mobility 64 MB 21.830
Geforce FX 5650 Go 128 MB 12.710

and http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=mobility9600&page=9

Basically, Mobility 9600 is sufficient when it comes to most DirectX9.0 based games save the most recent FPS (Far Cry, Doom3, Hal Life 2). If you want to play them with high settings you have to go for something like high end Mobility Radeon X800.

Rednik
Wed, 15th Sep '04, 4:32am
MSI is awesome, I don't know much about their notebooks, but judging from their motherboards(Which I have one of) and their graphics cards(My friend has 2), MSI is a great brand name and when you are getting something from them, you are getting an awesome product.

As for Acer, they are another good company, and they offer some really good deals on laptops that pack some decent power.

Edit: Is this (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=M510C&class=nb) it?

ToTaL
Wed, 15th Sep '04, 8:06am
Not really that, i want to buy:

Notebook MSI MS 1003 1,5 Centrino
Procesor Intel Pentium-M 1,5 GHz / 2MB, Centrino
40GB HDD 5400o. 8MB, RAM 1x 512 MB DDR 333
CD-RW/DVD, 15" TFT XGA 1024 x 768
VGA ATI Radeon mobility 9600, 64 MB
Speakers, microphone, Modem, Memory Card reader
3xUSB 2,0, IEEE 1394, VGA-out, S-video, PCMCIA
8-cell Li-ion battery 4800mAh, wgt 2,9 kg


Is it worth it to buy new dothan proc? Not because of speed, but because of less power consumption and less heating?

Rednik
Sun, 19th Sep '04, 9:06am
The dothans are a nice jump, there's a pretty good article on tomshardware about them. Here are some choice quotes so you'll know the advantages.

What's revolutionary is the fabrication technology that Intel uses, because Dothan is Intel's first mobile CPU that is manufactured with the 90-nm process. The new fabrication technology lets the CPU run with lower operating voltage, which has a positive effect on power consumption

Theoretically, the use of 90-nm and strained silicon technologies, combined with a 2-MB L2 cache, should result in a fast and power-saving processor. This is also reflected by the value of the thermal design power, which Intel specifies at 21 watt for Dothan. On paper, the CPU thus consumes less power than its predecessor as well.