MSI ships $999 13.3-inch EX300 laptop
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 3rd 2008 5:06PM
posted Dec 3rd 2008 5:06PM
MSI EXPANDS ENTERTAINMENT NOTEBOOK LINE WITH THE SLEEK NEW EX300
EX300 Features Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, ATI HD3450 Graphics Card
CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – December 3, 2008 – MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is pleased to announce the US release of its new EX300 Notebook. The EX300 features an Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processor P7350 and Intel® PM45 + ICH9-M Express Chipset to deliver unrivaled processor performance, great wireless connectivity, and a longer battery life. MSI also included the highly advanced ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD3450 graphic card with DDR3 256MB VRAM, to deliver a fluid and detailed movie viewing experience.
MSI packs all these features into a fashionable Brilliant Red or Dazzling Blue ultra lightweight alloy case, which weighs just 4.5 pounds (including 8-cell battery). Its clean lines and sharp contours combine with the powerful colors to make the EX300 one of the most aesthetically pleasing notebooks available. Furthermore, the EX300's 13.3 inch widescreen display is the optimum convergence of size and mobility. It offers a superior viewing experience when compared to other ultra-portables with 12 inch displays, without sacrificing mobility with unnecessary bulk.
The EX300 also sets users free from cabled connections. EX300 owners can easily access the Internet over high-speed 802.11 a/g/n, and the built-in Bluetooth V2.0+EDR allows you to simultaneously connect to various kinds of Bluetooth peripherals, including keyboards, mice, PDAs, cell phones and more with data transfer rates 3 times that of previous the version. The notebook also features a built-in 3 in 1 Card Reader, 2.0 webcam, a multimedia burner drive, and finger print scanner for added security.
The MSI EX300 is priced at $999 MSRP, and is available online at Amazon, Zip Zoom Fly, mWave, Micro Center, and Buy.com.
FULL SPECS BELOW
why even bother. $999 can get you a MacBook and two OS capabilities that are worth their salt.
Sorry, but the 999 macbook doesn't have a graphics card. Before you flame me, I'm typing this from my last gen macbook.
Yes they do.
@Kris
Um, no they don't. The old ones had Intel integrated graphics (read: no dedicated chip) and the new ones have Nvidia integrated graphics. While the new Nvidia chip is vastly better, it still can't compete with a legitimate graphics card like the 3450.
And no, I'm not an Apple hater either- this is being typed on a current gen mb pro.
But I thought Both were just integrated chips. Thats what I mean.
Is this a card or a chip.
They're all just chips, he real difference is if it's using its own dedicated video memory. That makes a world of difference. The ATi Radeon 3450 and Nvidia 9300 are rather comparable with the Radeon only slightly better. None of these are going to be game busters but they can play something like Call of Duty 4, Counter-Strike Source, and World of Warcraft at tolerable levels.
So the only difference is video memory between the macbook and the MSI and the ATI is slightly better.
No. The older MacBook uses a Intel chip, which are very low performing and not comparable to any ATi or Nvidia chip. What I was pointing out is what is usually the different between a "integrated" and "discrete" chip solution. There are versions of the ATi Radeon 3450 for instance that don't have dedicated memory and instead take up some of the systems main memory. The real issue with this is that the graphics chip accessing the main system memory takes up a lot of time and therefore performance goes down quickly.
3450 is a dedicated card? You must be kidding... It sure has more performance than build-in graphics, but compared to 8600/9600/9800 mobile cards it has the same speed as a build-in graphics - very very slow. In 3D games at least.
If you don't plan to play games, 10-inch netbook would be a better choise, IMO, considering the price difference.
But I thought He was talking about the new Macbooks with Nvidia chipsets.
I'm going to take this a bit further actually and clarify a few more things.
In a laptop there are two possible places you're going to place the video chip one of two places. In this case, with the MSI laptop, it is on a module connected to the laptop's motherboard. Along with the graphics chip is the dedicated memory, 256MB in this case. With an Intel solution the graphics chip is integrated into the Northbridge. The Northbridge is a chip that basically acts as the systems highway, the CPU accesses things such as memory,USB ports, hard drives, etc via this chip. When a chip is integrated into the Northbridge it must be small, low power, and rarely has it's own dedicated memory (the only exception with this right now is an entirely AMD based system, and not all of those have dedicated memory). This means the chip is slow and must access main memory (which causes latency, lag, and is much slower). Now this is a really crude breakdown but I hope it helps.
Oh shit I just realised he was talking about the cheap Macbook that is the old generation. I don't use dollars so I thought that the 999 Macbooks were the newest ones. Sorry. I forgot they were still selling Intel chipset Macbooks.
I already knew everything you were talking about I just got confused because he was referring to the intel chipset which is what got me confused and which means he is indeed wrong and you are indeed right. I Apologise for my confusion
Okayyy
Let's see
Macbook:
- 1GB DDR2 Memory
MSI:
- Not specified, but I can't imagine it wouldn't be at least 2GB, as they do with all their current laptops
win: Probably MSI
Macbook:
- 1.3 iSight cam
MSI
- 2.0 cam
win: MSI
Macbook:
- 120GB hard drive
MSI:
- 250GB
win: MSI
Macbook:
- No cardreader
MSI
- 3 in 1 cardreader
win: MSI
Macbook:
- 5 pounds
MSI:
- 4.5 pound
win: MSI
Macbook:
- Crappy onboard VGA
MSI:
- ATI's 256MB Mobility Radeon HD3450 GPU
win: MSI
Macbook:
- Battery life: 4.5 hours
MSI:
- Not specified, but with an 8 cell battery, there's no way you'll get less than 4.5 hours
win: Probably MSI
Macbook:
- Display port for which you need to buy additional adapters
MSI:
- HDMI
Win: MSI
....
do I need to go on?
Don't think so.
How good is ATI's 256MB Mobility Radeon HD3450 for games like Call of Duty 4 and GTA 4?
well put it this way, At least it can RUN them. CER CHINGGGG!!!
The HD3450 can indeed run them, although the HD3450 is much more of a media powerhouse than a gaming one, so what kind of gaming performance you could expect from this laptop remains to be seen.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3450.9593.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html?&benchmark_values=0&doom3=&fear=&month=&or=&professional=0&search=&sort=3dmark06
it scored 1912 points on 3dmark 06, which is a little better than 8400M GS, almost the same as 9300M GS, and significantly lower than my 8600M GT (which scored 3347). I know 3dmark 06 doesn't speak for everything, but it's a pretty good comparison. My 8600M GT can play CoD4 at highest settings, no AA, 1024 x 768 res with barely acceptable frame rate (30 ish). So you probably need to turn down the graphics settings for this one.
Call of Duty 4 is going to play decently at low to medium settings at this screens native resolution most likely. GTA IV is a rather poor port to the PC and it's NOT going to play well at all even at low setting, hell even top end video cards for desktops have a hard time with GTA IV at Medium settings, just a poor quality job by R*.
GTA 4 is a very demanding game (even for upper mid-range desktops, and high range desktops at the higher resolutions), so my guess would be no but you never know.
I would think it'll handle CoD 4 though - the Asus N10 can handle it at lower resolution/detail, and that has an nvidia 9300m chip and an atom CPU.
Not as well as the MacBook Pro. Nuff Said.
Almost anything can handle COD4, its written nicely. GTA4 is a different story - even the most powerful cards have trouble running it with high settings...
I recently bought a MSI 13" laptop (pr310x) and I couldn't be happier with it. The only problem is that now MSI changed its logo and as I have the old one, it makes my laptop seem older than it is...
But...But...But...ITS WINDOWS!!!
Ubuntu.com
I think you've got more problems than small laptops if your hands are the size of gorillas.
Well you know what the say.
Big Gorilla hands
Big Gorilla ?????
gloves??
Big Gorilla... full stop.
Not big gorilla hands, we're talking about hands the size of actual gorillas. So yeah, you'd definitely have a problem then.
well you know what they say about big gorilla hands...
big noses :P
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Mobile-Grafikkarten-Benchmarkliste.735.0.html
#80: 9400m
#94: 3450
Looks too much like a netbook. In other news, the Studio XPS is now available on dell.ca!
Studio XPS are out? I checked and couldn't find... Linky?
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs
Not in the UK. They're just styled like the studios and renamed the M1530.
The xps1530 has been out for ages in the UK, I was speccing one up a couple of weeks ago.
I never noticed.
the m1530 has always looked like that
@Peter
Hey, don't confuse people! That's an old regular XPS, not Studio XPS. The new Studio XPS 13 and 16 will be out in January/February.
I am referring to the Studio XPS Desktop. It is the one with the core i7, the one that was released a little while ago in the states.
Ah MSI netbooks, if only I had the cash, looks purdy.
Except that this isn't a netbook, by any definition of the word....
Hm, just curious, but how come no one really makes laptops/netbooks in 11.1" screen sizes?
I'd guess no one makes LCDs in that size. It's kind of a chicken/egg scenario, the LCD makers make the sizes that people want the most. 11" is kind of useless since there's both 12" and 10". The reason the first EeePC and early netbooks used the 7" screen is because those were used in those portable DVD players so they had that size available. I think the same thing happened with the 8.9" ones, which is a really weird number and that's probably why. I think with the 10" netbooks that size was completely new for most manufacturers.
Not a bad notebook. Let's hope that XP Pro is an option rather than Vista.
Vista isn't THAT bad. I've been using Vista for a year now on my laptop, no problems with it.
What's with that pseudo-hoodscoop styling? Not complaining, it's just different...
How is this "marginally larger" than a Wind? It's way, way bigger if you compare them side to side, not to mention much heavier.
8-cell battery? I'd be interested in seeing what kind of life that gets.
Cells don't really have reference to battery life anymore. It depends on how good the cells are. Example; Asus packs a 2 cell battery with their EEE S101 and it gets roughly 4-5 hours of life. If the cells are half decent then I await reviews of this laptop.
after the break