MSI has still maintained a light-weighted design with a thin-bezel design, and the black matte colour scheme is looks even more upmarket.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

GS66 Stealth 10SE Tech Specs from Official Website
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GS66-Stealth-10SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton

The inside package is the general GS series black box with thick foam protection

The AC adapter is slim design, 20V 9A 180W and manufactured by DELTA and the weight of the AC adapter and power cable is 368g in total

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

The MSI GS66 top and bottom look

The main look of GS66

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is around 18 mm and the opening angle of this laptop is 180°

Although the keyboard still does not contain the numeric area, the feel of the material is still very good

The Per-key RGB Keyboard backlight

The FN key activated mode on

The touchpad by Synaptics has a large-sized modern design

The touchpad inside look

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The Intel 10th Gen & Nvidia RTX logo sticker

The MSI GS66 Stealth benefit badge

The audio system is still using Dynaudio

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Not symmetrical, but square vent design gives this laptop a tough industrial aesthetic

The laptop right side – Ear/Mic port, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen2, 2 x USB 3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x 2.5Gb Killer LAN port

The laptop left side – Power jack, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / Thunderbolt?3) with PD charging, 1 x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI, 1 x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2

The laptop weight: 2.2KG, 2.56KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Hardware & Software Introduction

AIDA64 CPU details

The screen panel is LQ156M1JW03, 15.6″, 240Hz 3ms FHD IPS-level, 100% sRGB, manufactured by Sharp

The Realtek ALC298 audio details

AIDA64 LAN and WIFI detail
LAN chip – Rivet Network Killer E3100 2.5Gb LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

CPU-Z CPU snapshots

CPU-Z RAM snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

MSI Dragon Center – Gaming Mode, allows user to turn on/off gaming acceleration

MSI Dragon Center – User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile

MSI Dragon Center – General Settings, allows user to change key functions for OS

MSI Dragon Center – System Monitoring, allows user to check the machine details

MSI Dragon Center – True Color, allows user to adjust the view modes and fine-tune the screen colour

MSI Dragon Center – Ambient Link, allows users to customise their environment colour with MSI Mystic Light management system

MSI Dragon Center – Battery Master, allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI Dragon Center – Live Update, allows user to check and update the hardware driver

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference in single-core speed compared with an i7-10700 on a desktop

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

VRAY Benchmark

PCMark10 Benchmark: 4,846

3DMark Time Spy : 5,876

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 2,738

3DMark Fire Strike : 14,079

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 7,047

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 3,584

3DMark Port Royal : 3,273

3DMark API

FFXV Benchmark @ HQ FHD

HALFDEAD 2

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation using AIDA64.
Test room temperature : 25℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 52℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 39℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 30%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 43%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 23%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 72℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 33%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 73℃±2℃

These results are definitely not normal. We suspect that because the machine is an engineering sample, which may have a contact problem caused by bumps during transportation. We disassembled the machine and reinstalled the whole heatsink and re-applied the thermal grease with an industrial graded Xinyue 7921, then turned on the Cooler boost function.

After the modification,
Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 14%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 23%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 7%
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 66℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 15%
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 67℃±2℃

Under PRIME95 pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 25%
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±2℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – Top of the C panel

Front – Keyboard (Whole C panel)

Left – Vent temperature

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature

The Intel 10th gen i7 does generate a huge amount of heat, the previous cooling system easily suppress the 8th and 9th generations’ i7. This problem does not only happen on laptop CPUs but also desktop CPUs. This is indeed the biggest pain point of Intel’s new generation of Coffee Lake CPUs. After the test, we thought MSI’s new Cooler Boost Infinity+ was not that efficient for the 10th generation until MSI switches the whole heatsink module to their latest version.

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The main inside look

The laptop C panel internal looking

Battery, 6578mAh manufactured by Getac, 4-cell 99.9Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 8GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD
SSD: Samsung PM981 512GB
WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

The Cooler Boost Infinity+ Heatsink: 7 Pipes

The exhausting fans are 2 x BS5005HS-U4Q(DC 5V 1A) and U3J(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by A-power

The main motherboard front and back look

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G1-B-KB-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 2060 with 6GB GDDR6

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H CPU

The PCH chipset

The Killer E3100 2.5Gb LAN chip

The Killer Shield – is to optimise LAN connection, jitter control and electrical surge protection

The Sound card chip Realtek ALC298

The Realtek ALC1306 operational amplifier IC chip of sound card

The Dynaudio speaker 2 x 2W

The Sound level is around 94.3dBA with full volume

The power control chip STM32F072

The Intel Thunderbolt?3 chip T803A900

SUMMARY

As a gaming laptop, the MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE laptop has very powerful performance. The Intel Core i7-10750H processor is easy to deal with whether it is for gaming or creative needs. The Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics card has a good balance between performance and thermal control. It meets the performance requirements of various AAA game, but also has the support of Ray-Tracing technology. The 240Hz refresh rate IPS screen has good colour performance, and 3ms response time is also a great addition for e-sports players.

For laptop computers, it is usually difficult to have both size, performance and endurance together. In fact, MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE has made a good balance. Not only is it equipped with a 99.9Wh battery, but at 20mm, it’s not thick either. Under the battery life test, this gaming laptop will stand around 4 hours of in-game playing, while the daily work life is About 6 hours, it is basically consistent with its hardware specifications and battery size.

Of course, the Killer E3100 2.5Gb network card not only has strong performance but also supports Killer’s unique QoS function, which can prioritise gaming network data and reduces lag. The dual 2 watts Dynaudio sound effects also brings users an excellent sound experience

For heat dissipation, it is probably an unavoidable problem for thin and light laptops. The heat generated by the 10th gen i7 and i9 is terrifying, and this is not something that ordinary heat dissipation modules can solve. Just after our first bench feedback, MSI quickly responded and replaced the new version of their thermal module. This new version thermal module is currently built-into the on sales GS66 and WS66 workstations laptops. The heat dissipation performance is very good. For the latest stress test, please refer to our previous review article on WS66.

At present, the MSI GS66 gaming laptop has a variety of different hardware configurations. The processor range is from Core i7-10750H to Core i9-10980HK, the graphics card ranges from GTX 1660 Ti to RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q, and the screen refresh rate ranges from 144Hz to 300Hz. We believe that users with different needs will find their favourite model.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91.5/100

EPIC PC REWARDS: EPIC RECOMMENDED

MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Package appearance
The whole package design of MAXIMUS XII HERO WIFI is nearly the same as their previous version MAXIMUS XI HERO WIFI
Package Front

Package Back

Package Side

Opening the box

The ROG Sticker, Manual book and instruction guide

The Driver CD and ROG metal sticker

The ROG greeting card

The accessories box – including SATA cable packs, RGB extension cable, MOSFET cooling fan pack, M.2 screw packs, WIFI and Bluetooth antenna and a new ROG band

Product Analysis
The main body of the HERO WIFI motherboard

The front and back look

The side I/O

The bottom I/O

The top I/O, includes RGB headers (12v 4pin & 5v 3pin addressable) and 8+6 pin CPU powe

The rear I/O :
1 x Marvell® AQtion AQC111C 5Gb Ethernet
1 x Intel® I219-V 1Gb Ethernet
1 x HDMI
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1
2 x USB 2.0
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
1 x Clear CMOS button(s)
1 x USB BIOS FlashBack™ Button(s)
1 x ASUS Wi-Fi Module
5 x Gold-plated audio jacks

This motherboard includes 3 M.2 SSD slots (M.2_1 and M.2_3 supports SATA & PCIe 3.0 x 4)

The SATA M.2 SSD won’t work on M.2_2 slot, it only supports PCIe 3.0 x 4

The M.2 SSD heat sinks

The 24-pin power and USB Gen2 Type E socket, and POWER button, FLEX Key (Reset), Debug Code indicator and RGB sockets

The CPU VRM and PCH heat sinks

The rear I/O cover and PCH cover with RGB lights

The look after we removed all heatsink and covers

The Memory slots – supports up to 128G DDR4 4700+(OC). The slot does not come with armour

In terms of PCIe slots, the 1st and 2nd armour protected slots are PCIe 3.0 x16(single x16 or dual x8) and they are directly from the CPU. The 3rd PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 mode when three cards) and the rest 3 of PCIe 3.0 x1 are controlled by the chipset

The processor power supply adopts the design of 14-phase CPU core power supply + 2-phase integrated graphics power supply

The MOSFET TDA21462 from Infineon
According to the product sheet from Infineon, this MOSFET has a 60A of its single maximum current, and it’s also used in the ROG Matrix RTX 2080 Ti

The Wifi 6 and Bluetooth card – Intel AX201NGW

The northbridge chipset

The ASUS SupremeFX supported sound card is ALC1220 from Realtek, it also uses the famous golden capacitors from Nichicon

The ASUS DIGI+ EPU Chipset – ASP1405I customised from the Infineon IR35201

The Marvell AQtion AQC111C 5G LAN Chipset

The BIOS flashback controller chip

The Onboard TPU chip

The Onboard I/O controller chip Nuvoton NCT6798D

The Asmedia ASM1442K chip is the next-generation high-speed TMDS level shift ICs for HDMI & DVI video application

The ASUS AURA 50QA0 RGB controller chip

The ASUS Pro Clock II R77775PY timing controller chip

The new LGA 1200 slot of Intel’s 10th gen Core desktop processor

The foolproof designed gaps are moved to the downside compared to the 1151 socket

Overall
As a mid-range in the ROG Maximus family, the ROG Maximus XII HERO features several changes both from the aesthetics and the internal designs. More armour protection is added compared to the previous Maximus XI Hero and the RGB elements are slightly increased. Due to the 10th gen CPU eating more power, the on-board power supply has been strengthened thoroughly.

For enthusiastic gamers, the ROG Maximus series motherboards have always been their first choice. The Maximus XII Hero still easily handles the 240W i9-10900k, the powerful power supply support not only brings stable performance but also will effectively relieve the pressure caused by overclocking, thereby further increasing the FPS in-game.

At the same time, ROG Maximus XII HERO has two new technologies: AI smart heat dissipation and AI smart network. AI smart heat dissipation can automatically manage and control the fans connected to the motherboard and adjust the settings according to the current system load and temperature conditions to ensure efficient and stable operation. As the name implies, the AI Intelligent Network uses GameFirst VI game low-latency features to automatically optimise the game network environment, thereby bringing a smooth, non-stop gaming experience.

At AU$829, it is not a very competitive price, as the ROG Z490-E is only $599, it also has the same CPU power supply plus an additional onboard Display Port 1.4, and a 2.5Gb LAN port is absolutely sufficient for gamers. If you haven’t got a firm belief in ROG and pursuit of absolute high-end products, the ROG Maximus series has no advantage in terms of cost to performance ratio.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91.5/100

EPIC REWARD: DESIGN AWARD

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII HERO WIFI OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The innovative Socket design of the 10th generation Core sees the introduction of the new Socket 1200, Intel is making sure it’s incompatible with the old CPU family and releasing the related ranges of the Pentium Gold, and Celeron processors, with a total of 32 models.

THE INTEL i7 10700K

The i7-10700K has 8 cores 16 threads, the L3 cache has 12MB, the frequency range is from 3.8GHz to 5.1GHz, the price of 749 AUD which is quite expensive.

Package appearance

Package Front & Back

The CPU chip & manual with newly designed 10th gen i7 sticker

The new LGA 1200 socket (FROM ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII HERO WIFI)

Run-time Benchmark Test
CPU-Z

AIDA64 GPGPU

Comparison
We also prepared two bench platforms to compare the new 10th gen i7 10700K and 9th gen i9 9900K

CINEBENCH R15/R20 Single core & multi-cores comparison

wPRIME Single Thread & Multi Threads

V-RAY is using to demonstrate computer processing and rendering capabilities

AIDA64 PhotoWorxx is to test the performance of processing digital photos
FPU SinJulia is used to measure extended precision floating point performance
FP32 RRay-Trace uses SIMD enhanced ray-tracing engine to calculate the scene to measure single precision
FP64 Ray-Trace uses SIMD enhanced ray-tracing engine to calculate the scene to measure double precision

Gaming Performance Comparison
Intel claims that the new generation of CPU will bring a significant improvement in-game performance

However, after our testing, we found that the average FPS of these test games did not reach Intel’s advertised price. Given that most games have a higher avg FPS based on a high-frequency single-core speed, the 10th gen i7 with the new Turbo Boost V3 technology does have some advantages, but it is not obvious, some games do not even perform as well as i9 9900K.

Overclocking? The way we achieved the best performance is to push the core voltage to 1.47V to achieve all core 5.1Ghz, the temperature was stable at around 82°C, the HwINFO shows that CPU is eating 250W, as we are using a 240mm AIO liquid cooling kit, the 10th gen CPU is quite hot.

In summary, after testing, we found that this 10th gen i7 is not very cost-effective compared to the previous generation, buyers also need to upgrade the motherboard to fit the new socket 1200. However, the new SOCKET does not bring many new features such as USB4.0 support, although Intel has confirmed that they disabled PCIe gen4 support on 10th gen CPU until the next generation is released, so the motherboard manufacturers coincidently choose to not integrate it in their Z490 motherboards, which means we still cannot use the ultra-fast speed PCIe Gen 4 SSD or graphic card etc on the new platform at the moment. Users can decide whether to replace the new generation CPU according to their needs.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91/100

EPIC REWARD: EDITOR’S CHOICE