MSI GV15 15.6″ 144Hz Gaming Laptop: Intel Core i5-11400H GTX 1650 8GB 256GB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6, USB Type-C, Nahimic 3 Audio Immersion, Win 11: Black 11SC-633

The good, the bad, and the ugly. First and foremost this is a standard entry level gaming laptop. You can throw a lot at it and it won’t budge, however, do be mindful that this is still a laptop. Cooling will be the primary issue as is the case with most other laptops.The good- The version I received came with a 10 core 12th gen i7, a dedicated 4050 GPU with 6GB of VRAM. This is more than sufficient for my gaming, photoshop, programming, and productions needs. I debated splurging on a laptop with a larger 17″ screen, for my purposes though 15″ is enough. The brightness and clarity are great. 144Hz is an excellent feature, but considering the nature of this machine I would prefer 120Hz. Allow me to clarify, I understand Hz has everything to do with the screen refresh rate. I also understand most games can be capped around 120FPS, by capping the two it can allow cooling headroom.The mediocre- at $1K is 512GB of SSD space the best you can really do? I immediately took my machine apart and installed an aftermarket 4TB crucial NVMe and a 4TB Samsung 980 Evo, in addition to replacing the RAM from 16GB to 64GB. I understand this sounds like overkill, and it is… to an extent. Beyond gaming I run virtualization software and edit photography shots for my side gig. Running virtualized labs exhausts a lot of resources, and due to the nature of travel associated with my work, I can’t always utilize my desktop. Audio isn’t the greatest on this machine either, the sounds are washed out due to the speakers being place on the bottom.The bad – expandability. This is 2023, disk space should be expandable by now without voiding the warranty. I am well aware I can purchase an external drive, but it blows my mind that modern day devices have the ability to be customized – e.g Disk space/RAM, etc, but the warranty must be void in order to do so. These are relatively low risk modifications.The ugly- cooling, 100%. MSI BIOS by default runs turbo, add Windows 11 to the mix and you have a deadly concoction on your hands. This toasty boi almost peaked around 92C. Yes, modern day equipment can run this hot, will it stand the test of time though? I am not one to take that risk. I managed to take 20C off of my average temps, which should hopefully increase the longevity of my laptop.What would my suggestion to the manufacturer be?- First and foremost disable turbo, it’s unnecessary. The laptop is certainly capable of performing under extreme workloads but it’s not exactly practical when the temperature is teetering around it’s throttle limit.- A thicker base for a more robust heatsink. I know this is counterintuitive to the specific design of this product since it is supposed to be thing. This could expand the life of the product though.Suggestions for the consumer- Turn off turbo in BIOS, it requires enabling advanced mode but the rewards are worth it.- Get rid of Windows 11, it’s absolute garbage in its current state. Maybe by the next iteration they will have fixed it. For now, install Windows 10 via USB or install a user friendly Linux Distro like Mint, Debian, or Ubuntu.- Purchase an aftermarket laptop stand/cooler. I don’t have any particular one to suggest since I’m still in the search for something I think will perform the job correctly.Final thoughtsThis is a solid 7.5/10 laptop. It’s not bleeding edge by today’s standards, but it will do more than just get you by especially if you are a student on a budget who enjoys games on the side. This laptop also serves as a great multipurpose device with a few component modifications. That all depends on if you are willing to risk voiding the warranty or not. As an IT professional I suggest not doing so if you are not comfortable with the thought of that.

Extremely FAST and POWERFUL! Absolutely worth it. First off, this laptop is a BEAST! I don’t normally post reviews, but I wanted others to know that it’s absolutely worth every dollar. It’s extremely fast. Like, multi tasking is so easy; even while gaming! I can run ultra/epic on literally any game that I throw at it, and the graphics are PHENOMENAL. It beats my PS5. There’s much more precision and depth. It completely blew me away and it’s pretty quiet too. In comparison it’s probably just as loud as a ps5, which isn’t very loud at all. I do use a cooling pad to help maintain the temp, but I haven’t had any spikes. It’s very consistent, which I like! The audio is phenomenal. It’s very immersive. You can easily tell if someone’s behind you in a game. Like, it’s very impressive.MSI did a great job with this set up. I’ll give it a 9 out of 10. Just because no laptop is perfect, but there’s a couple of things they could improve. I wish the quality of the cam/microphone was better. Although, it’s not really needed with a gaming laptop because you’ll most likely use a headset or separate microphone. I wish the quality of the keyboard was a little more sturdy if that makes sense. It might just be me, because I’ve used a lot of mechanical keyboards for gaming, and it just feels a little odd to me.Worth it though! You guys gotta get your hands on one 😁

Good Laptop, Missed Opportunities. It does what is claims to. Decent CPU, dedicated GPU, good audio, expandable storage and RAM, etc.The missed opportunities come really in only one place, but two opportunities. Both issues are with the USB Type-C port. First, that the port isn’t thunderbolt, I know 11th gen CPUs support thunderbolt, missed opportunity to give users access to that technology. Secondly the Type-C port doesn’t support USB PD charging. Again a missed opportunity to give users extended functionality at what I presume to be minimal additional cost.