I had been searching for a portable workhorse for sometime before the MSI P65 (1070 Mx-Q, 500gb) caught my eye. Know that I am a Zbrush sculpture, FX artist, and game developer. I love this machine! I haven't done a ton of gaming on it but it has rocked FFXIV and Black Desert like a champion for a couple hours at a time.
Pros:
- Sleek, professional, and beautiful design.
- The multi monitor support works super well.
- Thoughtful cooling design- this puppy can handle a LOT before it starts to get -too- hot (90'-100'C). The flipped motherboard was a great choice.
- Dragon Center's "Cooler Boost" technology -nearly- eliminates the need for an external cooling fan (though if you care about your machine at all you will still get a cooling pad at least).
- WORK. HORSE. This machine could handle 4k renders in Maya while editing texture maps in Photoshop. In fact, this machine eats Photoshop for breakfast and can run it behind virtually any other program- like Zbrush or Unreal for instance- without eating up too much processing power or RAM. (Naturally, you shouldn't leave RAM munching software running overnight or something. This machine likely wouldn't handle it well) .
- Can handle a few-hour long Maya render. It cries a bit, but it can handle it.
- The keys feel wonderful. The hotkeys on the keyboard are super helpful and function well.
- The display is absolutely magnificent and MSI's "True Color" options really make a huge difference. It's like having a Mac's display without having to own a crummy Mac machine.
- The mousepad functions are wonderful. (Such as scrolling, zooming, ect... Though I don't use it for working.)
- Finger-Print sign-in works great.
Cons:
- The Speaker sound quality is REALLY bad. However the sound card when using headphones makes up for it.
- The battery is nothing to write home about. You will get 2-3 hours of work in tops before needing to charge (maybe 5 if you're just writing or web browsing).
- Adding an additional SSD is TERRIFYING. Not impossible, just nerve-wracking (due to the fact that you have to flip the motherboard over to install the SSD without tearing a ribbon or messing something up). If you have never built a computer or disassembled one before, I recommend just buying a version of this machine with a bigger HD or using an external. I added an additional 1TB Samsung Evo to mine.
- The casing scratches easy on the outside- be wary. (I earned a couple of small scratches when adding the extra SSD).
- Watch your background processes, such as Adobe CC or Autodesk manager. This is still a laptop, not a desktop- and too many background processes tend to heat this badboy up easily and unnecessarily. I recommend having such processes disabled when you aren't using them.
Thoughts:
A good portable work horse, just keep in mind that this thing is a laptop and not a desktop- and therefore cannot stay as cool while running several processes. If you need this computer to last you a few years then keep it cool! Buy a laptop cooler for it to sit on at least (I have been using this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NACVLWM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for an extra cooler boost. It really works well).
Good Luck, and Happy creating!
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920x1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.2 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 32 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Hard Drive | SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 8 GB |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 4 |
