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Edited April 12, 2021
at 08:12 PM
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https://www.costco.com/msi-ge75-r...68605.html -
$1149.99
NOTICE: Outrider bundle only for purchases made by Apr 15. The laptop sale lasts until May 2.
Sign of the times. This was $50 cheaper back In Feb (though that was without Outrider). But with most new generation laptops MIA and deals drying up, this is still a good deal.
Unlike most 10th Gen Intel laptops, MSI allows undervolting. I bought one and did the UV and OC and will try to answer any questions you have. UV makes a big difference on the CPU (runs faster at 45W than it did at 55W stock), and you can run it maxed out at 4.3GHz on all cores indefinitely if you have some workloads that need it. I boosted GPU performance >10% as well, using Afterburner.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forum...75.279412/
As always from Costco:
90 day free returns.
2 year warranty (4 if you use their card).
Specs here (this is the 008 model):
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GE75-Ra...cification
Some things I like:
1) 17.3" 1080p display, 144Hz, >300nits, 3ms response, high contrast, 100% sRGB.
2) RTX 2060 is 115W, which means it's ~15% faster than 80W 2060s and 1660 Ti, and faster than many 2070 and 3060 laptops that are throttled to a lower wattage.
3) MSI supports UV on Intel CPUs which makes them much more competitive vs Ryzen. With the UV it's faster than a 4600H in Cinebench.
4) It has great speakers for a laptop
5) You can install two NVMe drives as well as a 2.5" drive.
6) Costco warranty and return policy!
Review:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI...416.0.html
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My main concerns are:
- Battery life isnt great. I have to plug in my device after an hour or so, though to be fair, I tend to only charge up to ~60%. The AC adapter is a giant chonker. If you use this mainly as a desktop/stationary PC though, you'll be fine. If you buy a second AC adapter, pay attention to the plug size. I accidentally bought the same model of adapter, with the wrong plug. My bad.
- Fans are noticeable when they're cranked. Luckily it's more of a soft wooshy sound, and the fans rarely kick into high gear unless I'm playing a very graphically demanding game. Rocket League is A-OK. Wreckfest keeps the fans busy.
- Dragon Center software is clunky, and resets some of my settings (like USB port LED settings) each time a new update of Dragon Center is installed.
- No Thunderbolt, so I have to plug in ~4 cables to dock it instead of one. But I can accept that given the cost savings.
- Had to replace the extra HDD with a larger SSD, but again, I was comfortable doing that myself given the cost savings.
- MSI's CEO fell to his death shortly after I bought it.
That said, it's a great value and I'd buy it again today given the current market. It's replaced my desktop PC for home recording studio use, programming, and gaming.
If 1080p looks bad on a 17" display, I guess the 24" I'm looking at must really suck...
Or maybe I'm just blind... It is a good panel for a 17.3" 1080P display anyhow.
Reviews on COSTCO are fabulous with a product 4.7 to 4.8 star rating out of 5.
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...I ask because I found old reddit posts saying that costco models are "cheapened" sometimes.
The cost to illegally "cheapen" laptops just for Costco would far outweigh any potential savings. And since Costco has by far the best return and warranty policy it would be doubly stupid.
Though the Leopard and Raider chassis have changed, I don't know if it is really an improvement...
The cost to illegally "cheapen" laptops just for Costco would far outweigh any potential savings. And since Costco has by far the best return and warranty policy it would be doubly stupid.
Reviews on COSTCO are fabulous with a product 4.7 to 4.8 star rating out of 5.
Technically it is still close $1100 price since now it comes with the Outriders game.
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Reviews on COSTCO are fabulous with a product 4.7 to 4.8 star rating out of 5.
Yes there is chip shortage and that is why things are selling for so much money IMHO.
Plus, this is NOT AMD.
At $1,200.00 I expect to get at the bare minimum an RTX3070 (or at the least RTX3060) and a Ryzen 7 4000 series. This is the GUTS of you laptop. I don't see this being a great deal in 2021 OR 2020... maybe in 2019 this was the balls... but guess what, we are in 2021 and AMD now rules.
Last year the max on 2060, 2070, and 2070 Super were all 115W (firm, no Dynamic Boost). Some 2080s went higher.
That's why paying a lot more for a higher level laptop card gets you such small gains. The gain only comes from FPS/watt. On desktop cards the bigger chips also have more power, more cooling, bigger fans, etc, so the differences in performance are much greater... but laptops don't have the room to deal with it.
Edit: got mine about 24 hours after delivery (3 days total after purchase). It was sent to the email I listed during checkout, not to the email registered to my Costco account.
The laptop sale lasts until May 2.
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