MSI GT627: Bringing Balance to the Force?

Power Requirements

Power requirements with a laptop plugged in don't necessarily reflect power requirements when a laptop is on battery power. In particular, high-end GPUs run at lower maximum clock speeds when using the battery. Keep this in mind when looking at the following numbers. We test under idle conditions, with a 100% load placed on the CPU via Folding@Home SMP, and finally at maximum load by running FAH SMP at the same time as we loop 3DMark06 (at the native LCD resolution).

Our power measurements are with the LCD at maximum brightness, which isn't necessarily a fair way of doing things as some LCDs are much brighter than others are. Unfortunately, we don't have most of the laptops around to retest. The MSI GT627 only uses 1W more power running at maximum brightness, however, which represents an increase in power draw of just 4%. On the other hand the Dell Studio XPS 16 only uses 9W (33%) more power at maximum brightness. The other interesting thing to look at is power requirements when the CPU is overclocked. Since it's extremely simple to enable/disable overclocking (press the Turbo button), we only recommend it when you're doing something that's CPU intensive. In such situations, overclocking increases power requirements by 10-11W. You definitely wouldn't want to overclock the system when you're running on battery power!

In terms of overall power requirements, the 15.4" chassis helps MSI to provide reasonable gaming performance without using substantially more power than some non-gaming (i.e. GeForce 8600M or lower GPU) laptops. Looking at battery life and performance, the MSI GT627 would be a far better choice than laptops like the HP dv5t or Gateway M152-XL. Either buy a laptop that offers noticeably better battery life and lower performance, or jump to the MSI GT627. Graphics chips like the GeForce 8600M/9500M and Mobility Radeon 3650 just seem to use too much power and offer too little performance in return.

Noise Levels

We also ran noise testing using an SPL meter at 24" under the same conditions as our power tests.

Idle noise levels aren't the best, but otherwise the GT627 does quite well in this test. Also interesting to note is that overclocking didn't affect idle noise levels, but it did add over 3dB to the CPU and maximum load results.

Temperatures

We didn't create any charts, but we wanted to give a quick rundown of the temperatures you might expect from the GT627. We placed a maximum load on the system for 60 minutes (looping 3DMark06) and then measured temperatures, so these results are something of a worst-case scenario. However, the testing environment was only 67°F, so in warmer conditions the notebook will likely run a bit warmer. Also note that the notebook was sitting on a hard, flat surface - you can use it on your lap, but if you block the ventilation slats temperatures may also increase.

We measured temperatures of up to 50°C at the exhaust, which is by far the hottest spot on the chassis. Temperatures on the bottom of the laptop range from 24° to 41°, with most of the bottom measuring around 35°C. The keyboard and palm rest aren't quite as hot, ranging from 25° to 33°C with most of the keyboard staying under 30°. Compared to the Gateway P-7808u, a few areas are slightly hotter but overall the difference is less than a couple degrees. The combination of slightly lower performing parts with a smaller 15.4" chassis works well.