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Strangely enough, MSI never managed to impress us 100% here at Laptop-Review – we have always felt left with a middling product that needs only a few minor improvements to make it excellent. Expectations of this particular product were large as we got to play with the newest i7 technology and other top notch components.
MSI’s GT740 is the most recent take on a high-end gaming notebook to challenge the competition. With Intel’s Core i7 720 quad-core processor, 4GB PC3-8500 RAM modules and Nvidia’s GTS 250M, the device has plenty of power for gaming and applications. If that is not enough, it comes in a bright red and black design so as to attract additional attention. But can the GT740 deliver, or are you simply paying for the design? We aim to find out in this review.

The product was kindly lent to us by MSI.com

Specifications

Category
Gamer

Processor
Intel Core i7 720QM - 1.6 GHz - 4x 256 KB L2 cache - 6 MB L3 cache

Chipset
Intel PM55 (IbexPeak-M) - MSI MS-1727 - 1066/1333 MHz - max. 4 GB RAM

RAM
2x 2048 MB Hynix (Hyundai) PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM - 1066 MHz

GPU
Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M (N10E-GE /GT215) - 1024 MB RAM

Storage
Seagate 500 GB S-ATA hard drive - ST9500420AS

Display
17 inch TFT widescreen display

Sound card
Intel 5 Series/34x0 Chipset PCH - High Definition Audio Controller

Optical drive
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560S- CD/DVD burner

Battery
MS-1727 Lithium Ion battery - 11.612V - 78775mWh

Connectivity
Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN - up to 300 mbps*
RealTek RTL8168D / 8111D Family PCI-E GBE NIC - up to 1000 mbps
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Connectivity
3x USB 2.0
1x eSATA / USB 2.0 combo
1x PCI ExpressCard slot
1x Card reader (XD/SD/MMC/MS)
1x Firewire IEEE 1334
2x Audio jack-out
2x Audio jack-in
1x HDMI output
1x VGA output
1x RJ-11 modem
1x RJ-45 LAN
1x Kensington lock

Operating system
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (build 7600)

Dimensions and weight
Width: 39.5 cm
Depth: 27.8 cm
Height: 3.3~ cm
Weight: 3.2 kg (incl. battery)

Price
Around £1,300.00

Package contents







The computer ships with:
- Installation media
- Tomb Raider - Underworld
- Manuals and guides
- Power supply
- Antistatic cloth
- MSI StarMouse

Construction & Design

The first impression





















From the moment you lay eyes on the GT740, you know it is a gaming notebook. The red on black gives it a futuristic look, along with the aluminium surface that draws attention to lines running atop the device. When I took a closer look at the finer details, I noticed that the aluminium and lattice around the touch-panel were loose at the edges, most likely due to temperature shifts during transportation. I could probably have ripped out the loose parts with ease, but opted to push them into place instead. The glued-on surfaces do not seem like an all that well thought-out idea, even if they do look good.
When you start up the computer the diodes shine with a blue light that contrast nicely with the red, and thus the trip into GT740’s world starts to look better. All in all the design is alright, but the level of craftsmanship is inconsistent.

The lid



The lid is black, brushed aluminium with MSI’s logo printed in the middle. The long crevices in the surface make the device look good on the exterior.

The front



You can just glimpse the two frontal speakers at the front, hiding behind the aluminium lattice. You can also see the diode-panel in the middle, but more on that later.

The rear



At the rear we have a vent followed by an HDMI output, VGA output and the DC-in jack.

The bottom







At the top we have the 9-celled battery sticking out of the computer a bit. Just below we find the hard drive, and at the left there is a larger lid behind which you find the RAM modules and CPU. At the very bottom you can see the subwoofer, which we will get to later as well.

Right side



On the right we first have the ExpressCard slot, with a multimedia card reader for XD, SD, MMC and MS formats just below. After that we have a USB 2.0 port, eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, firewire IEEE 1334 port followed by audio-in and -out jacks (two of each). You can spot another port at the far right, which is where the built-in TV tuner will be if you get that model.

Left side



On the left we have the Kensington lock slot, followed by an RJ-11 modem port, RJ-45 LAN port, 2x USB 2.0 plus the optical drive.

Buttons/Diodes





The power button is located left of the keyboard and is lit up by a blue diode when the computer is turned on. Above the keyboard is a touch-panel where you can control multimedia and various modules. Specifically: "previous", "stop", "start/pause", "next", "ECO mode", "activate ’Cinema mode’", "activate webcam", "activate Bluetooth", "activate WiFi", and last start-up of a user-defined application.



Below the touchpad is a panel of diodes, indicating the status of WiFi, battery, power, hard drive activity, scroll-lock, numlock and capslock. All diodes are lit with a blue light when active.

Keyboard and touchpad



The keyboard has approximately the same size as a standard keyboard for a desktop, which makes it nice and easy to use. It flexes slightly, but you do not notice it as such. The letters are spelled out clearly, and the WASD keys have been treated to some extra red marking for the benefit of gamers. The device also has all the numpad keys, which can be an advantage for some.



The touchpad responds quite well, and the surface is quite frictionless and thus easy to use. The touchpad is multi-touch enabled, which means you can use several fingers for various gestures and associated functions. The buttons do not look all that traditional, but worry not – they work just as they should.

Display









The display is a 17 incher, running a resolution of 1650 x 1050 pixels. View it from above and the brightness increases; view it from below or the sides and the display gets dimmer. The display is very crisp when you sit directly in front of it though. The backlighting is homogenous or evenly distributed across the screen.

Speakers



The device has four satellite speakers along with a subwoofer at the bottom. Unfortunately the sound is far from optimal as it starts to scratch before you reach the maximum volume. Clearly there was a problem with one of the speakers. However, the deeper tones were hardly impressive either, especially when you consider there is a dedicated subwoofer.

I/Os



Special Features

Webcam



The embedded webcam is a 2 megapixel one, capable of taking pictures in a resolution of up to 8 megapixels interpolated, i.e. 3200 x 2400 pixels. ArcSoft Webcam companion is the corresponding software that allows you to add effects to pictures and such.

Benchmarks

CPU-Z & GPU-Z









GT740 is based on Intel;s new Calpella platform consisting of the PM55 "Ibex Peak" chipset and one of the quad-core Core i7 "Clarksfield" processors. The new processors feature innovations like Turbo Boost, which makes intelligent use of the cores. If two or more cores are unused and the CPU not too hot, the remaining cores are automatically overclocked. In this way the CPU always optimises performance, whether you are running applications that can take advantage of only one core or several.

Comparison

MSI GT740 is pitted against HP's Envy 15, which is not too different in terms of hardware. HP Envy 15 has the following specifications:

- Intel Clarksfield Core i7-720 Quadcore Mobile - 1.6 GHz - 6 MB L3 cache
- Intel PM55 (IbexPeak-M)
- 2x 2048 MB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM
- ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4830 (M97)
- Seagate ST9320423AS - 320 GB - 7200 RPM
- 15.6 inch HD LED 16:9 widescreen display - 1366 x 768px
- HP Lithium Ion battery - 6 cells - 53280 mWh – 12.4V
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (build 7600)

HP Envy 15 costs about £1,200.00

You can read the review here

Windows Experience Index



The computer’s base rating is set according to the lowest sub-score, which in this case is “Primary hard disk – disk data transfer rate” at 5.9 points, a decent score in itself. The highest score is reached in “Memory (RAM) – memory operations per second” which gets a whopping 7.4 points. When you consider the scale goes from 1 to 7.9 points, this is a pretty good result.

Boot and out of standby times



The computer starts up in about one minute, which is quite alright. Envy 15 is about 15 seconds quicker though. When it comes to getting out of standby, it takes only 1.9 seconds while Envy 15 needs 6 seconds.

Battery life



Idle test settings
Brightness: 1/9, HDD standby after 10 minutes and WiFi active.

Classic test settings
Brightness: 9/9, HDD standby after 10 minutes and WiFi active.

As can be seen, neither of the two does very well in terms of mobility. MSI GT740 lasts about 1 hour and 45 minutes which is not too long, and Envy 15 is not much better. At classic settings we are down to about 1 hour, which is not much for all-day computing.

Processor

wPrime 2.0



Both do quite well in the wPrime benchmark. They have the same processor, namely Intel’s i7-720 quad-core processor, and that helps boost performance.

SisSandra Processor Arithmetic & MultiMedia



In the Arithmetic test, the program calculates in MIPS per sec. (Million instructions per second) and in the Multi-Media test, it calculates in Mega Flops per sec. (One million floating point operations per second). In both cases, higher is better.

In SisSandra's CPU benchmark, the results of the two are quite even as well. HP Envy 15 gets a slightly higher score, though applications running in the background can have an impact on this test.

Cinebench R11.5



The new Cinebench R11.5 is online, but unfortunately results are not much more comparable than they were in the older versions, so it is hard to conclude anything from this test.

RAM



You can clearly see a difference between the two computers in the RAM test. There is almost a staggering 5 point difference between the 4 GB PC3-8500 RAM and the 4 GB PC3-10600 RAM modules.

Graphics

3DMark Vantage & 06



In 3Dmark,  you can see HP Envy’s ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4830 performs slightly better than GT740's Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M. However, this does not mean GT740 will be unable to run newer titles.
Overall

PCMark Vantage



The two are very even in the Vantage test, with only a 14 point difference.

Hard drive

Sisandra Physical Disks



Both computers have fairly quick hard drives, and there is not much of a difference in reading speed on the two.

Gaming

The device ran all games at its optimal resolution of 1650 x 1050 pixels with Windows' “High performance” power profile.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2



"The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse.."



With all settings at high, the computer ran the game at an average FPS of 44, which we consider playable. Lowering all the settings gets us up to 72 FPS.

Bioshock 2



“Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. You are the very first Big Daddy as you travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and your own survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 provides a rich prequel experience that expands the award-winning BioShock gameplay. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject in the underwater city that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the game's toolset to survive as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.”



At highest settings we reached an FPS of 35, which is alright. As you lower the settings you quickly find an optimal configuration in this game, depending on how graphics-savvy you are.

Grand Theft Auto IV



"What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Bellic fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and get dragged in a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.”



This is what the Auto configuration looked like:



The game runs quite well; the FPS is slightly low, but since the gameplay is not too fast, it feels very smooth.

Crysis Warhead



"Take on the fight as the volatile Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes in a new parallel story taking place during the events of Crysis. Psycho's secret mission will take him to the other side of the island on a ruthless pursuit of a North Korean general hell-bent on obtaining powerful technology. With the versatile powers of his Nanosuit and an arsenal of fully customisable weapons and vehicles at his disposal, Sykes will do whatever it takes to carry out his top-secret objective. Action on the other side of the island is more intense, the battles are fierce, and the mission protocol is no longer "Adapt to Survive." As Sergeant Sykes, now you must adapt to dominate the battle. Twin SMG's blazing, seizing new vehicles, or going stealth, the action and the victory is on your terms."



At "Enthusiast" settings we are all the way down to 8 - 9 FPS, and at "Gamer" settings it does not get much better. Only at “Mainstream" and "Performance" settings do you get a halfway decent gaming experience.

Conclusion

As with the majority of MSI products, you are left with a why-the-heck-did-they-not-think-of-that-feeling and that is a shame, as the foundation is solid and all the basics are there.
MSI GT740 is a decent gaming notebook in a handsome futuristic design that is bound to attract the attention of friends and colleagues. The device offers powerful hardware like Intel’s i7 720Q processor, 4 GB of RAM and Nvdia's GTS 250M, a higher end GPU. Add to that plenty of I/Os which make it easy to connect all your gear.
Where the notebook fails is in terms of craftsmanship. The sleek aluminium lattices and surfaces were just not made properly, some of them already loose from the start. In addition to that I also had problems with one of the speakers that kept scratching before I even got close to maximum volume. It may have been damaged during shipping, but that does not make the impression any less negative. The computer’s battery life is not very impressive either, but mobility was never meant to be its strongest suit so that is acceptable.
The device runs most newer games quite well, although some force you to compromise on details. At a price of £1,300.00 the performance is as expected – top notch, but the overall quality of the product does not net our highest score.



Pros:
Good performance
Connectivity
Accessories
Design

Cons:
Craftsmanship is slightly subpar
Scratchy speaker – possibly because we reviewed a demo unit
Battery life – probably because of the powerful hardware

Battery:	1,5 / 5
Graphics:	3,5 / 5
Construction:	2,0 / 5
Mobility:	3 / 5
Software:	3 / 5
CPU Performance:	4,5 / 5
Innovation:	3 / 5
Connectionspeed:	3,5 / 5
Price:	3,5 / 5
Accessories:	4 / 5
Design:	4 / 5
Weight:	3 / 5
Performance:	3,5 / 5
Overall:	3,0 / 5