MSI CX61 0NF-256US Intel Core I5-3210M 6GB 750GB 15.6in LED GT645M 2GB DVDRW WLAN HDMI Win8 Notebook

Comment:
At this price point you're doing really well, the flaws are wiped away by what's offered imo. The 2 year warranty off the bat is usually $100 more to buy, so that tends to kill potential competition by itself (never skimp on laptop warranty, always get at least 2 years).(Here's the official product page for specs btw: http://ca.msi.com/product/nb/CX61-0NF-256US.html)The only other similar gpu offered at this price seems to be the GT630m (a Samsung I think), so you're doing well with the 2gb GT645m in any case (even if it's ddr3).The Ram it comes with is genuine 1600 btw, but I put in a HyperX 3k ssd in with some Corsair Vengeance 1600 to bump things up a bit and it's doing nicely. With a config like that you can actually manage some decent mid-level gaming in a good fps, and more than decent in anything else.Intel's Win 8 USB 3.0 Xtensive Host driver isn't fleshed out yet and can cause problems with multi-bay enclosures in my experience (*Win 8/Intel-centric criticism). Look around online right now and you'll see a lot of people taking issue with it. Hopefully Intel fixes it in the near future.Win 8 is annoying yes but if you install something like Classic Shell it makes it less annoying and you can disable the 'charm bar' if you like (some quick google-fu should take care of that), so you can pretty much have it running like Win 7 pro. Win 8's real leg up is pretty much only its fast boots, reboots, wakeups, they are indeed fast particularly w/ an ssd.Regarding warranty: I was on the phone to confirm some things with MSI, and despite MSI's warranty sticker protection on the back about voiding if you open up the back, MSI says they don't deny warranty claims if you are only upgrading RAM or installing an SSD. Only 'user induced' damage is not covered.So if there are legitimate RMA issues after you'd upgraded with RAM or an SSD or what have you MSI does not deny claims. I would encourage you to call them if you want to upgrade in any case so you can confirm it yourself though. This review was modfied by poster @ 03-15-13 06:03 PM

Comment:
For the money its an amazing laptop. for a little more one can get more, like for example a Lenovo Y580, double the cores CPU, and the GTX660 is also twice as fast... But the CX61 is no slouch. Its amazingly thin and light, it barely weighs more than my 18month old 11.6" Acer One netbook. USB3.0 speeds are about 40MB/s read and write. I installed a Sandisk Extreme 240GB SSD and it benches the same as on my I7 3820 setup. Takes 18 seconds to boot windows 8 from the time I press the start button which is pretty amazing. So much for everyones SATA 3GB theory on laptops.. But have to remember its an IvyBridge which supports SATA2. This is as much as I personally would spend on a laptop, it games pretty good and its very light to pack around. Its got a kind of cool brushed aluminum look to it, though darker grey. And surprisingly cool to sit on your lap for extended periods. comes with a 60watt power block, compared to my 3 year old gateway 17"gaming laptop which has a 190watt, and its literally half as fast, graphics and CPU wise. Its a great laptop for general use, but I feel for half again more money, you could get twice the performance. But it wouldn't be anywhere as thin and light as this laptop. And any thin light laptops or netbooks, this thing is much better graphics wise. Already upgraded to 12GB, a DDR3-1600 8GB SODIMM is inexpensive and an easy swap, altho I did void the warranty by opening her up. It has a muti touch gesture trackpad which is kind of cool, but feels kind of funky having a textured surface, and I'm still kind of a mouse and keyboard kinda guy.. This review was modfied by poster @ 02-20-13 07:16 AM