Dominate All!

Wire

The MSI GT72-2QE Dominator Pro is about to dominate the mobile gaming market.

Byline : by Din

I had never been a fan of gaming notebooks, or as it should be aptly called, desktop replacements. For me, they are bulky, heavy, not as efficient as their desktop counterparts, have issues with switching hardware, and prone to overheating. So I had been indeed a bit perplexed when The Head sent me the MSI GT72-2QE Dominator Pro Gaming Notebook and adamantly claimed: “You will LOVE it”. Well, I surely hope this desktop replacement would change my hardlined views. So then, let’s find out shall we?

Red Hulk

The GT72-2QE came in a VERY large box. This kind of surprised me since most of my notebook buying experience ended up with me having to pick up a normally small box. After opening it up did I only realise that this is not a normal notebook. Within, you will find a notebook bag, which we will talk about in another article, and another box. This box-in-a-box-in-a-box trick (ah-hah, box-ception!) didn’t end there, as inside the other box, there are another two boxes – one containing the GT72 and the other holding the extras. Lots and lots of extras.

Proper Steel

One thing that I forgot to mention beforehand is that MSI had collaborated with SteelSeries when developing the GT72-2QE. Thus in the second box, you will receive a SteelSeries Siberia V2 full-sized gaming headset as well as a Steel Series Kinzu V2 optical mouse along with a large-sized mousepad – all of which are coloured red to match the red/black hues of this gaming beast. Also inside the box mix you will find a large brick, uhh…I mean, power supply, a keyboard protector, manuals, and driver DVDs.

Black as Night

The first thing that will definitely come to mind when you finally unpacked the GT72-2QE is, well not really “Wow!” or “Cool!”, but “HOLY S—! THIS IS HUGE!!”. I mean really, this is the first time I saw a notebook with a size that is defined through its heft. The screen is a full HD 1080p 60Hz 17.3in LCD panel, hence the big overall build its chassis sports. The body is full black with some red accent and comes complete with a MSI Gaming dragon tribal logo on the front that will lit up whenever you power up this bad boy.

Speed of a Cheetah

The size is not the only thing that took me by surprise. When I powered on the GT72-2QE, I had been astounded by how fast the machine boots up. I mean, it took less than 30 seconds from the time you press the power button to having everything in Windows be fully loaded. Take note: you will get Windows 8 pre-installed. The sprinting performance is due to the two (YES! IT HAS TWO!) 128GB SSDs, both of which are configured in a RAID 0 configuration for maximum output performance. Since 256GB is a tad too small for you to install your games, MSI also included a high-speed 1TB HDD to pair with the SSDs. Now you won’t have to worry about installing those 30-40GB games.

Taste the Rainbow

The MSI collaboration with Steel Series is not limited to the backpack and headset as you will find, just like with previous gaming notebooks from MSI, the keyboard on the MSI GT72-2QE is powered with SteelSeries tech. While it’s not really full-sized, more like, a cramped 2/3rd-sized keyboard, it’s good to see the full 104 keys present as I use the numeric pad a lot. Size wise, it can be a little cramped for my hand at times but I’d make do since I enjoy using this keyboard. What I really love about this keyboard, size aside, is the backlit keys it uses and having full control of the colours they shimmer with. Just load up the SteelSeries software that is included and you can choose the hue you want at the moment. It supports all the colours you can think of and, get this, you can even programme it to pulse, breathe, or wave in the manner you like.

POWAAAAAAA!

I’ve managed to ramble a lot without even talking about the innards that power this machine yet. As expected MSI packed a number of big performers within the GT72-2QE. Being the flagship machine for the MSI Gaming Laptop series, MSI has included an Intel Core-i7 4710HQ with Turbo Boost mode on to ensure the clockspeed rating starts at 3.5Ghz. To make sure that there are no bottlenecks, two banks of 16GB of DDR3 RAM (Yes, dual channel 64GB!) is also included. To round it up, the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M with 8GB of memory is included as well! Personally, the amazing thing about this whole setup is having the GPU installed on an MXM daughterboard. That means that if you want to change the GPU once a new model is released, you can just swap it out. Neat! The only caveat of owning a gaming notebook originally is not being able to change your GPU. With this change, such a problem is no longer an issue.

Red Hot Performance

The GT72-2QE really blew my old perception of a gaming notebook out of the water. I honestly thought that it can’t perform as well as a gaming desktop but it proved to me time and time again it could. Battlefield 4? It ran on 80FPS and above all the way on Ultra settings. This is even on a 64-player map! Titanfall? Smooth as silk with all the particles and effects turned on to 11. Asetto Corsa? It feels like you are really driving on a real track. The only thing I do feel that should be changed is the display. At60Hz LCD, it does feel a little dated. I certainly hope MSI would throw in a 120Hz IPS panel instead. Of course, this isn’t a complaint. Really! If you want all the visual pizzazz, just plug in this monster powerhouse to three external monitors, via the HDMI and mini-DisplayPort jacks it sports. Go on, you know you want to!

Last Thoughts

This machine is one of the best gaming systems I had ever tested. Keep in mind I’m comparing what I seen with the GT72-2QE with full-blown gaming desktops that I personally built. While I do feel that desktop is the better platform, I don’t really mind getting this MSI entry as a LAN Party machine.

Price: RM9,999
Dimensions (W x D x H): 428 x 294 x 48mm
Weight: 3.78Kg
Processor: 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4710HQ
Memory: 2x 16GB DDR3 1,600MHz at 11-11-11-28-1T
Storage: 2X 128GB SSD in RAID 0/ Super RAID, 1X 1TB 7200rpm
Graphics: Intel HD 4600/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB DDR5L (Optimus Not Enabled)
Display: 17.3in CMN1735 Full-HD Anti-Glare LCD, 1920 x 1080@30fps
OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1
Connectivity: Killer Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Killer LAN, Bluetooth 4.0
Sound: 2.1 Dynaudio with 7.1 Support (via SPDIF), Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 with Exclusive Audio Boost 2
I/O: 6x USB 3.0, 1x HDMI 1.4, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2, 1x Mic-In/Headphone-Out, 1x Line-In/Line-Out, 1x SD (XC/HC) Card Reader