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The MSI GT663R packs in a lot of firepower and looks stunning to boot. The chunky, all black design will remind you of an exotic supercar. Those who like ‘bling' will love the metallic red hue around the keyboard and speakers. The keyboard is great, with large, spaced out buttons and the ability to toggle the WSAD keys into arrows keys for left-handers. The separate numpad is a plus. While the touchpad is big and wide, it's quite unresponsive and has a sandpaper-ish quality to it, which kills the experience.
Attractive package
The GT663R is powered by a quad-core Intel i7 processor (Q740M @ 1.73 GHz) and has a 1.5 GB Nvidia 460M GPU. While the standard rate of 1.73 GHz won't raise eyebrows, Turbo Boost allows it to go up to 2.93 GHz when required. The Turbo Drive Engine overclocks the GPU's core rate from 675 MHz to 709MHz, and the shader rate from 1350 MHz to 1417 MHz. The notebook has 8 GB DDR3 RAM and two 500 GB Western Digital hard drives in RAID 0 to boost read/write speeds. The 15.6-inch display (1366x768) is great, but it's glossy and gives off a lot of glare.
The device sports four USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0, plus an eSATA port, an Express Card slot and a 5-in-1 card reader. In addition, there are HDMI and VGA outputs as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and Gigabit Ethernet. The integrated webcam can record at 720p in 30 FPS, which is really good.
Game for performance
The MSI GT663R posted very impressive results in our volley of tests. It bested the ASUS G53J and G51J in synthetic and real world tests, and in games. It could play Call of Duty: Black Ops at 48 fps, and Mafia 2 at 33 fps, but in Metro 2033, the GT663R only managed 8 fps. Games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which are CPU-intensive, ran at 29 fps at maxed out graphics. The GT663R also has superb sound thanks to the two built-in Dynaudio speakers. Audio is clear, crisp and loud enough.
MSI has done a good job at heat dissipation. At full load, it does get quite hot, but thanks to the large vents, the heat is pushed out well. The GT663R is quiet as it completes day-to-day tasks, but fire up a game and you will hear the fan whirring as it moves into high gear, which is a little distracting. At full charge, the battery will last you a good hour and 10 minutes of intensive gaming, and over 3 hours under low load.
The MSI GT663R tears through almost anything you throw at it. At Rs 1,49,999, it does provide the performance it promises and is a great option for gaming on the go. The bad touchpad and its 3.5 kg weight are downers, but that is a small price to pay for this kind of horsepower.
Love - Striking looks, superb performance, packed with features.
Hate - Bad touchpad, noisy at full load.
Rs 1,49,999
Specifications
Processor - Intel Core i7
Operating System - Windows 7
Memory - DDR3-1333 MHz up to 12 GB
Display - 15.6-inch Full HD or HD LED backlight (16:9)
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce
GTX 460M -1.5GB
Video Output - 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
Hard Disk Drive - 500GB/640GB
RAID 0/1TB RAID 0
Optical Disk Drive - DVD Super Multi/ Blu-ray
Interfaces - 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0,
1 x eSATA,
1 x Express Card, 5-in-1 card reader
Sound - 2.1 ch speakers sound by Dynaudio, DTS surround sensation UltraPC
Communication - 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, 1 x Gigabit LAN
Webcam - HD (30fps@720p)
Battery - 9-Cell Li-Ion
Dimensions - 395 x 267 x 55mm
Weight - 3.5 kg (with Battery)
CHIP
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