MSI CX61 0NF-257US Notebook Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M

Pros: Decent computer for the money if not for....

Cons: Hard major hardware failure in less than 2 months worth of owning it. Looked online for other people experiencing my issue and it appears to not be uncommon with this MSI computer. I would look else where for a similar deal.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.

Please feel free to contact us directly to set up a RMA service with the following information provided to usreview@msi.com.
1. Full name (first, and last)
2. Telephone #
3. Physical address
4. Email address
5. Serial number (located in the battery compartment and begins with S/N)
6. Proof of purchase (screenshot/photo, or PDF is fine)
7. Symptoms you are having (as detailed as possible)

Once your information and warranty coverage are verified then we can proceed with this RMA for you.
Our turn-around time is typically two weeks and our system will notify you automatically at every stage of your RMA process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, received the unit back from RMA but are still having issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Where to start? GT 645M handles games very well. The i5 is fast, plenty of storage space, awesome speakers and 6 gigs of ram all for under $700.00
Windows 8 is great once you get used to it. It's fast and I haven't had any crashes. Installed Classic Shell to get the start button back and now it's even better.

Cons: None, well, it didn't cook me dinner.

Other Thoughts: If you are looking for an inexpensive gaming machine or an all around good laptop without breaking your bank then this is the one for you.

Pros: - The NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M graphics card is superb for gaming.
- The value of the hardware you get out of this laptop for the price is disgustingly awesome.

Cons: - This laptop has a tendency to try to optimize itself during the time of boot, especially after windows updates. This is a real pain because you can spend 10 or more minutes trying to get to your desktop if you are a regular, non-tech savvy end user. It seems to be a never ending freeze that occurs when you start this laptop. It will eventually get to the desktop. This is partly due to the new poor implementation of the EFI replacement over BIOS.

- You can't replace the hard drive easily because now you have to deal with EFI (the BIOS is now a partition on the hard drive and not stored in firmware on the motherboard).

Other Thoughts: I bought this computer for video gaming while traveling. This has been a great investment. The GPU on this puppy is really powerful and it runs League of Legends, Runes of Magic, and Path of Exile very, very smoothly for me. I experience at least 30 FPS at the worst in big cities on Runes of Magic (which is really, really good), with an average of 60 FPS anywhere else. If you are looking for a low dollar gaming rig, then look no further, so long as you can put up with an insanely long boot time (if you dont know how to fix it, I have tried to fix it and gave up).

I have my Masters in Computer Science and I have been tinkering with computers for 15 years, so when you read my review know that it is the opinion of an expert.

Pros: Speakers, Graphics card, Screen

Cons: Windows 8!!!!

Other Thoughts: So this was a nice step ahead for me, finally a decent laptop that can handle most games I would want to play. Then I get it and find out just what so many others were complaining about. Windows 8 is amazingly awful. So far that is the main issue with this model. Mine also has a slightly loose dvd drive. Nothing I am too concerned with though. Once I get 8 off I doubt I will have a single complaint.

Pros: Runs smooth, could use a ram upgrade, runs SC2on ultra smoothly, lags sometimes but not a big deal, runs Diablo 3,WOW on ultra smoothly, also get 30-35fps on Tf2 and Cs go and Cs source, for the money it is worth it, i can play all my games decently so its worth the money for sure

Cons: windows 8! o.m.g i dont know where to start, get rid of it asap, i just took my old HDD and put it in this new MSI cause i couldnt even figure out how to get win 7 on the 750gig HDD that came with this thing, have to change the partition to ntfs and its a pain in the b.u.t.t, anyways, good bang for the money, works well

Pros: Very clear screen
Light weight
Great speakers
Nice graphics card for the price range

Cons: As always Windows 8! Windows 8 caused it the crash 3 times. It wasn't hard fix but still its a pain.
The system in general seems to be very fragile. You really do need to play with the settings just to get it to run at a decent speed.

Other Thoughts: Ok so this was my second laptop they had to send me. The first crapped out right away. This one seemed to work much better. It was faster however it did have the crashes.
Now the worst thing was that this one had a strange clicking sound coming from the front. I could hear it 3-5 feet away. My thought was that it was the fan but the MSi tech thought it was the graphics card. Either way it had to go back.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Koro,

We apologize for the issues you are experiencing with this laptop.

If you still need assistance, please contact us directly at usreview@msi.com so we can help you resolve these issues.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Videocard is great. So far I have been able to play Skyrim on Ultra settings with no problems--The guy below me was right. Can't wait to try Tribes Ascend or Crysis!
Speakers are also amazing. I sold my desktop and speakers for this thing and couldn't be happier with it...well, maybe I could. See: Cons
It's pretty light as laptops go.
Boots up really fast too--faster than my i7 12gb rig ever did.

It's also nice automatically switching between the integrated graphics and the dedicated card to save power.

Cons: Windows 8!!!!!!!!!
I don't know if there is such thing as 'so easy it's hard' but that's Win8 for you. If you're used to 7 you're probably going to pull your hair out using 8. But I installed a Win7 button which made it manageable. I honestly couldn't figure out how to shut the computer down using Win8 without the start button (I still don't). The whole interface is counter-intuitive imho, especially if you have used Windows since the dawn of time.

Booting up for the first time you would think you are filling out a job application - a lot of prompts and steps to go through.
I don't own a windows phone and don't care about syncing my Windows "experience" with other machines.

I didn't think the resolution on this thing would have been a big deal for me but I certainly miss my 25" HD LCD monitor. Like someone mentioned below, you can replace the LCD panel with a higher res one.

Other Thoughts: I think after I replace the screen and add some more RAM this thing will be a dream. All-in-all, great laptop for the money. I definitely recommend it for the strapped, mobile gamer.

Pros: The 645gt graphics card is fast for the laptop's price point.
It has a full keyboard.

Cons: It's rather large for a laptop with a 15.6 inch display. It's bigger than my old laptop that had a 17 inch display.

Other Thoughts: This is the computer that I hoped it would be. It's powerful PC for a price that isn't insane.

Pros: This laptop is my first. My purposes are gaming and music producing, as well as some video editing. ill look at each of these sections:
Gaming
the GT 645M graphics card is really really nice. I can literally play Far Cry 3 with very High-Ultra settings with no lag whatsoever. This was a huge concern with me cuz i read some reviews saying it could play games on medium to high settings but i was very excited when i tried ultra and it worked flawlessly. Skyrim on very high runs about 35-40 FPS constantly. I game with it charging, so it obviously gets a little hot, but not too bad. I can play pretty much all the games i currently have on high-very high quite easily.

Music
Speakers are really loud. its nice. theyre decent quality for a laptop. i use FL Studio 10 and it runs great, songs take a short time to render, and they turn out great. Listening to music is enjoyable, speakers are loud and crisp. very nice.

Sony Vegas 11 runs surprisingly well, it renders in HD 1080p and plays with hardly a lag during editing process. Rendering in 1080 however, does take a long time to save, even a 3 minute video with an intro can take up to half an hour. in this case, if video editing is a major factor, go with the i7 it will render faster.

Cons: Sometimes it freezes and lags for a second, when i switch tasks the hard drive flicks and clicks a bit, sometimes internet gets slow (but thats probably just my house), battery life indicator is unreliable (was at 96% and said i had an hour left, then went down to 78 and said i had 3 hours and 43 minutes left...), sometimes fan gets quite loud, but its mostly a fairly quiet computer. I cannot get the bottom of the case to come off for the life of me. i bought some ram along with it so as to upgrade the 6 gb to 8 gb by replacing the stick of 2 gb with a stick of 4. this is impossible for me to do cuz its just not coming off. ive unscrewed everything and its not coming off. So this is kinda why i gave it a 4, otherwise it would be a 5.

Other Thoughts: Very very impressive lap top. Quite powerful, very fast, slim design looks great, mouse pad is kinda sensitive if tapping to click, definitely worth the money. graphics card is a huge plus. on msi's website it costs 100 dollars more so come here for it. relatively light for its size, very intuitive keyboard and the placement of the pad is nice so it doesnt get in the way of typing. windows 8 i am actually a fan of, i was skeptical at first, but its really easy to get used to. you can download a start button replacement really easy and i find that i barely use the windows 8 menu screen so its not much different from windows 7. but yes this is a very nice laptop, well worth it. im glad i got this over an asus and an acer that i was looking at as well. :)

Pros: Bang for buck: With the 645M dedicated 2GB graphics card this laptop plays anything I want it too.
The weight is great considering how large the screen is and that it comes with a number pad.

Cons: Screen is too glarey (though I knew about this at purchase).
Comes installed with Windows 8 and no option for 7. Having to take hours to set up 7 then download all the drivers was annoying enough that I can't rate this 5. But to MSI's credit they have all the drivers for 7-64bit on their site easy to find.

Other Thoughts: All in all, I am very satisfied with this machine. It's fast enough they my code compiles in a blink (where my old budget model could take a few seconds), and light enough for lugging around campus. Plus I can play my games without having to have spent twice as much.