OK, it took me months of searching for a notebook. I started looking for a notebook around August and there were a couple of them that piqued my interest. That list included the Asus G74, Alienware M17x, HP Envy 17, and the Dell XPS 17. I wanted a gaming notebook, but more then that - I wanted a notebook that would be future proof for a couple of years well as my Gateway FX was when I bought it. Knowing this, I know for sure that I made the right choice. I started looking at the MSI GT780DX after I heard these newer core i7 processors were coming out, I decided right away that the 2670QM was right for me. At that time when I purchased this notebook all of the above listed notebooks, except the Alienware had these newer processors. So why did I choose this notebook? GTX 570M at a price that no one else can beat. At the time of this writing, there is no other brand that even offers the GTX 570M as an option. Its 15% faster then the GTX 560M and not much slower then the GTX 580M, and with the overclock option on this MSI, it's not that hard to reach this 580M stock speeds.
So when it was finally time to choose I bought this over the G74SX, those were my two final choices and the MSI was more appealing to me. Better audio system, 5 USB vs 4 USB, Matte display vs glossy display, an unbelievable multicolored changing keyboard vs a regular white keyboard, and in my opinion better styling (debatable of course). Not to mention this MSI was only $50 more and what you get in content was worth a lot more then $50, I would argue the multicolored back-lit keyboard alone is worth that price. Also, this comes with a DIRT 3 voucher where you get the game for free. You just scan the code or take a picture of the voucher, and attach it to the online form, and a couple of days later AMD emails you the game key and you download the game (Have not received mine yet).
So OK, on to the notebook lets start with the speakers. The speakers truly are phenomenal, I have known about Dynaudio for quite some time, a lot of Volkswagen cars use this audio system and the speakers are very solid, just like they are in the cars. I listen to all types of music from classic, all the way to Rap/RNB/Country/Rock and have never felt disappointed with the audio, great job here. The keyboard is wonderful, I love the spacing of the keys, it took me only one day to be able to use this keyboard perfectly fine. It really feels like you are typing on a desktop keyboard, anyone should catch on quick. The back-lit keyboard is truly amazing, you can use many different color combinations, and have different types of settings on the back-light. You can have the keyboard breath, wave, dual color mode (the keyboard changes between two different colors), and gaming mode. Gaming mode is intelligent, it only lights the left hand side of the keyboard so the other keys don't get in your way especially when gaming at night. Another nice thing about the keyboard is they put the windows key on the right side, so you won't hit it while gaming!
I have run some benchmarks already, 3DMark06 and Crystal Disk Mark. Both have blown me away, I am getting a score of 17500 in 3DMark06 and for Crystal Disk Mark I am getting read and write times at 125! That is very fast for a normal mechanical HDD, I was expecting about 100 read and write but 125 was very unexpected. This notebook comes with a Western Digital Scorpio Black drive which is known to have great performance. I have not run any other benchmarks yet, and have not overclocked the notebook using turbo mode to run benchmarks, I will update the review and add this in. Before I go, I have to add one thing, this notebook like any other notebook on the planet is not perfect. There are two gripes that I have, the first thing I don't like is the touch button you have to press on top of the keyboard to open the DVD drive, it is not intuitive. I tried to open my DVD drive while I was restarting my computer, and had to wait until windows booted up all the way to open up the disk drive, very annoying. If there was a physical button, it would have been able to open right away. The second problem I have, is those touch buttons in general. Maybe its just me, but it doesn't seem responsive, you have to hit it exactly in the middle for it to work, and it's hard because these button are not lit period! So you have to actually look very closely to even see especially at night time. That's something I hope MSI considers on the next revision of this notebook, give those buttons back lighting so you can actually see them without having to put your head against the screen at night. It lights up when that key/feature is activated, but still that is not enough, make it another color when it's off so people can still know its disabled.
So overall, I have to give it 5 stars. The value, GPU, build quality, keyboard and the speakers are all truly phenomenal for any notebook under 2 grand. My gripes are minor and something I can live with, for every one thing I hate, there are 5 things I like, this is how a notebook should be made, great job MSI!
