MSI ships 17-inch GX740, complete with Core i7 and Radeon HD 5870
By Darren Murph 
posted June 12th 2010 5:41PM
posted June 12th 2010 5:41PM
MSI Announces U.S. Availability of Powerful GX740 Notebook
Intel i7 CPU and ATI HD5870 GPU Deliver Intense Experience for Gamers and Movie Buffs
CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MSI Computer Corp., a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, today announced the availability of its new 17-inch GX740 gaming notebook. Armed with the Intel® Core™ i7 processor and rich multimedia features including 7.1 channel output with SRS qualification, a subwoofer, Cinema Pro technology, and HDMI output , the GX740 is ideal for those who need superior sound and graphics, including gamers, movie buffs and graphic designers.
"The GX740 features some of the most innovative components available, and at just over seven pounds and only an inch-and-a-half thick, it is one of the lightest and thinnest desktop replacements ever designed"
The GX740's powerful ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics card supports DirectX® 11 graphics and teams with MSI's Turbo Boost Technology to ensure smooth game play without lags, while lowering power consumption. The GPU's 1GB of DDR5 memory performs 50 percent better than DDR3 memory.
"The GX740 features some of the most innovative components available, and at just over seven pounds and only an inch-and-a-half thick, it is one of the lightest and thinnest desktop replacements ever designed," said Andy Tung, vice president of sales, MSI North America.
Gamers and movie buffs can manage the GX740's 9-cell battery power to best meet their needs as a result of MSI's combination of the energy efficient Intel® Core™2 Quad plus Intel Turbo Boost Technology and MSI's ECO engine power management.
The GX740 is housed in MSI's stylish brushed aluminum gaming chassis with fire engine red accents. It features a raised chiclet keyboard designed for gamers with increased accuracy and comfort while typing, and clearly marked W, A, S and D keys for quick response while gaming.
The GX740 ships with a 17 inch LCD screen with 1680x1050 resolution, 4 GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard drive 7200 rpm, a 9-cell battery, Bluetooth connectivity and Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
The GX740 is priced at $1,399.99 and is available now at Amazon and Newegg.
For more information and full specifications, please visit http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=271&prod_no=1999.
How's the battery life?
@The Geek
I'd guess somewhere around 1.5 hours gaming and 2.5 hours of browsing and being energy conscious . . . that may be generous.
DDR5 RAM in the GPU is awesome and the price is reasonable, I suppose.
@The Geek
To heck with the battery life, what's the 3dmark score? If it won't play games well there's no point in worrying how long you can do it for without a power cable. Considering the size if worse comes to worse you could get an external plate battery. It won't get that much bigger or heavier. The numbers I've been seeing on gaming laptops lately seem to un int the 8000 to 10000 range which is about on par with a 500$ home built desktop from 2006 or so equipped with a then new 8800gt.
@bombastinator
It runs COD: M21 on ULTRA HIGH... on an average 50 fps... in other words: WIN. WIN. WIN. WANT.
3DMark 05: 17932
@bombastinator
Well not quite there yet. My home built gaming PC from 2007 is running better than that. The good kicker is that I can just switch out the graphics card to upgrade it every 1-2 years for better performance. Although I don't have the mobility of a laptop.
@ounkeo
And thereinlies the cost. The price of mobility is ubelievable when you really take a look.
@The Geek I love when Engadget does this:
Radeon 5870. Wow.
Mobility Radeon 5870? Sucks.
I'd love not to have these misleading titles.
@Shinigami yea, there is no such thing as a gaming laptop...its more like a laptop that actually can play some games
Cool, if you can afford it that is!
@Gutsy Gibbons
Actually 1399$ for a computer like this is a pretty great deal. It might just be the cheapest core i7/ 5870 combo on the market. Still not cheap though I guess...
@doyleman7 a pile cheaper than a mac with a far lamer video card. I wonder if it will hackintosh?
@bombastinator No, sadly it won't. Apple still won't put any of the Radeon 58xx line in any of their computers, so there are no drivers.
@bombastinator Please, a Mac gets probably more than 4X the battery life a 1200p resolution display and has a really nice looking aluminum enclosure. I'd pay more for the battery life alone with the Duel core i7s
@Cold Dead Fingers
Because we all know a "nice looking aluminum enclosure" is all that matters. It doesn't matter if jobs poops in it as long as the "nice looking aluminum enclosure" is there, right ?
^_^
@josephst18 Not so sure about that. There's a claim that n50 drivers are up, if not perfect yet.
http://www.macvidia.com/
Nice, however, I think it have to work on nuclear fuel to keep running.
Why, just why spoil a perfectly good laptop with a stupid red border?
@FNi
The Toshiba Qosmio is even worst
@FNi: Because it's a lot cheaper than slapping it in a anodized aluminum case.
@zullnero
It's also cheaper than black plastic, apparently.
@FNi I always thought it was an Asian thing.
IIRC, Red is the color of bridal dresses, and has the same cultural connotations as white does in the west, while White has the same connotations as black. I.e. death and mourningl Black is just a not very bright color, and since the choices for devices are normally black or white, they need something different. Samsung in particular has been going for reds and maroons in a big way with all it's electronics over the last several years.
Someone around here is going to know more about this than me though so feel free to speak up if you think I'm wrong. I may very well be.
@bombastinator
You're pretty much spot-on, but I don't think asian consumers care nearly as much as you think about the cultural connotations of red (or any other colour).
While geeks like us obsess over colours and benchmarks, it's more straightforward for others: It's a laptop. Not a car.
@bombastinator cough cough. asians like that stuff in their temples and weddings. we don't drive red cars or anything. the red stripe is a totally puts me off from MSI's GX line.
Still waiting on the pricing of the recently sobered down RoG laptops
@Moisiom It may be enough for a designer though. Designers get kinda desperate sometimes. Anything that will sound good in a meeting.
That is a great price for a laptop of this stature. Consider the fact that a mac with way less of those specs costs about the same.
@ChuckBartowski Seeing as you and Sarah have been on the rocks lately, can I get her number?
@ChuckBartowski
Hey buddy. You watch it. I will tranquilize you!
@ChuckBartowski Mac also has aluminum unibody construction and a 10hr battery not to mention a great multitouch pad and OSX.
@alex2792 but you cant play games... and eventually apple will tell the world that they have added mind controlling chips in all their product protecting the world from porn, violence, and the hatred of the world
@alex2792
How much will those matter to someone who uses their laptop as a desktop replacement?
@alex2792
They can fry eggs as well, these are completely different categories of products.
@alex2792: which brings up the question, at least to me...how the heck can you justify paying 400-500 more for an anodized aluminum case? At some point, someone's got to be able to mass produce those cases and slap them on anything and charge MAYBE 50 bucks more. Because if this MSi beats Mac with hardware specs, and Mac beats it with a shiny case and "better battery life" (which is meaningless in a gaming laptop), then Apple has some 'splainin to do, Lucy.
I'd hit that.
slowest news day ever
@John Stathakis: Why, because it's not Apple news? They announce new gaming laptops all the time on engadget. This one is actually an AFFORDABLE one with gaming quality specs.
@John Stathakis Agreed on slowest day on Engadget in a while. They haven't even talked about the newest Droid X leaks (I tipped them about...oh, 12 hours ago).
http://www.droid-life.com/2010/06/12/comparison-motorola-droid-x-vs-htc-evo-4g-vs-iphone-vs-eris/
Anyway, the only reason I complain is because Engadget is where shit goes down!
@zullnero $1400 is affordable?
Wonder what will happen to the pricing of the asus g73 -jh with this out in stores? Hi I'm a mac, he's a pc. What cha doin today pc?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but... 1.6GHz?
@CaryHiroyuki Tagawa quad core...
@CaryHiroyuki Tagawa
Quad and it overclocked itself up to 2.5ghz during hairy situation. Intel rocks!
AMD is owning with their lineup right now. They need it.
Good god are MSI's laptops ugly. There is literally no reason to get this with Asus' 17" G73 being at most $200 more, for a far-superior machine, in looks, form, and function.
@Leindurstit: I have a MSi WiND, and I get complements on it all the time. From Asus owners.
Any laptop that leaves a burn mark on your desk surface is badass in my book.
1,680 x 1,050?
You schmucks...
I just can't understand why not get a desktop at this point. There is almost no battery life, weighs over 12 lbs, and it clunky.
Desktop > Gaming notebook
@rmbrown09 Some people are lazy, and some people are just not very strong with they upper body to lift their massive desktop rigs to lan parties. That is why these computers were made, weigh less and more compact for easy (or easier) moving around
@rmbrown09
Lets see...
Not everyone has room for a 1'x4'x4' tower.
Not everyone feels like or is capable of lugging around a monitor + speakers + keyboard + mouse + cables. Don't forget the tower itself.
Some people might like to have a computer that they can easily move from one location to another, even if the battery life is short.
Just because you can not see the point of it does not mean it should not exist.
No USB 3.0? fail. I want a price on the 660 already!!!