The MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK laptop features an all-aluminium chassis, Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card in addition to an 11th-generation Intel i7-1185G7 mobile processor, an IPS screen with up to 144Hz refresh rate, two DDR4-3200 memory slots with up to 64GB support, one PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slot with a maximum capacity of 2TB capacity. According to MSI’s published figures, the Stealth 15M has a thickness of 15.95mm and a weight of 1.78kg. For comparison, the Razer Blade 15 advanced 2020 that we just recently tested is 17.8mm thick and 2.14kg weighs. In this case, what makes the MSI Stealth 15M much thinner and lighter?

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/Stealth-15M-A11SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton but the internal packaging has a black background with a textured hexagonal ring design

Opening the package we can see the laptop is wrapped with a thick foam protection

The AC adapter is 150W Slim design with 473g around weight plus power cable

Product Analysis

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

The main look of Stealth 15M

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

The chiclet designed keyboard has a tight feel with no loose corners

The Keyboard single-colour backlight

The benefits badge

The 11th Gen Intel and Nvidia Logo badges

Large openings are the key to the lightweight design at the expense of strength

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

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a medium-sized opening area

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C(USB4 / DP / Thunderbolt™4), 1 x Type-A(USB3.2 Gen1), 1 x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI

The laptop left side – Power jack, 1 x micro SD Card Reader(UHS-III), 1 x Type-A(USB3.2 Gen1), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack, 1 x battery charging indicator

The opening angle of this laptop is 180 degree

The laptop weight: 1.64KG, around 2.1KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI Stealth 15M is using an FHD 144Hz BOE NV156FHM-NX4(BOE0910) IPS-level panel

Before the calibration, we have to use the Intel software to adjust the screen colour and measure the brightness

Frankly, this screen with only 56.3% sRGB coverage is quite basic, but 144Hz refresh rate is better for gaming. We are using the DisplayCAL with Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite to calibrate this panel.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.17, Maximum △E≈2.52, RMS 0.41
After calibration, we have a 57.3% of sRGB, 39.5% of Adobe RGB and 40.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

The MSI CLICK BIOS
Main Menu

Main Menu – System Information

Main Menu – Storage Information

Advanced Menu

Advanced Menu – USB Configuration

Advanced Menu – UEFI BIOS Update

Boot Menu

Security Menu

Security Menu – Trusted Computing

Security Menu – Secure Boot

Save & Exit Menu

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-1185G7 with Intel iRIS Xe Integrated Graphics

HwINFO WIFI detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z Snapshots

HwINFO Memory detail

HwINFO SSD Detail

HwINFO Battery Detail

The new MSI Dragon Center
MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Gaming mode allows user to manage games and mobile apps

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile and OC settings

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – General Setting, allows user to manage the keyboard and webcam settings

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Monitor, allows user to check the laptop status

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Game Highlights, allows user to manage in-game recording videos

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Mystic Light, allows user to control the RGB effects for the laptop

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Microsoft APP, allows user to update the latest APPs from Microsoft

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Noise Cancellation, allows user to change the Noise Cancellation status for both speaker and microphone by AI-Powered MSI AI Engine, this is a new feature

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Duet Display, allows user to do easy-managed screen capture settings via second display and connect an iPhone by using MSI mirroring software cooperate with Duet. Unfortunately, we connect the iPhone to the laptop but nothing happens on both sides

MSI Dragon Center – My Device – Allows user to register the MSI Member and products

MSI Dragon Center – Support Screen – System Info, allows user to check the laptop serials and other information

MSI Dragon Center – Support screen – Live Update, allows user to update the latest drivers and BIOS, EC

MSI Dragon Center – Support Screen – Microsoft APP, allows user to update the latest core APPs from Microsoft

MSI Dragon Center – Tool Screen – Battery Master, allows user to choose the battery health option to enhance the battery life

MSI Dragon Center – Tool Screen – Backup, allows user to create recovery USB or ISO backup

Run-time Benchmark Test

Unfortunately, we cannot change the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘performance mode’ in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre.

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R15 Extreme Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 – Intel Iris Xe graphics | 5,564

3DMARK – Port Royal | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 3,016

3DMARK – Time Spy | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 1,627

3DMARK – Time Spy | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 5,306

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 2,495

3DMARK – Fire Strike | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 4,382

3DMARK – Fire Strike | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 12,569

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 2,020

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 6,469

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 3,275

3DMARK – Night Raid | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 16,041

3DMARK – Sky Diver | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 14,941

3DMARK – VRS: Tier1 | Intel Iris Xe graphics | OFF: 201.74 FPS, ON: 225.03 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | OFF: 23.01 FPS, ON: 39.45 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing Feature Test | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 10.39 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 AES

AIDA64 FP32 Ray-Trace

AIDA64 FP64 Ray-Trace

AIDA64 JULIA

AIDA64 MANDEL

AIDA64 PHOTOWORXX

AIDA64 QUEEN

AIDA64 SHA3

AIDA64 SINJULIA

AIDA64 ZLIB

AIDA64 GPGPU | Intel Iris Xe graphics

AIDA64 GPGPU | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

CPU-Z Benchmark

VRAY | Intel Iris Xe graphics

VRAY | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

X264 FHD Benchmark

X265 HD Benchmark

TxBENCH
The MSI stealth 15M is using the Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AI1 512G SSD with PHISON PS5012-E12C-10(PCIe 3.0 x 4)controller
Sequential Read/Write (up to): 2,000/1,600 MB/s

Furmark @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 36 FPS Average

Furmark @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 81 FPS Average

Final Fantasy XV | Lite-Quality @ 720P | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 3926 Standard | Playable

Final Fantasy XV | high-Quality @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Low @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 31.9 FPS Average | Playable

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

GTAV | Basic @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 48 FPS Average | Playable

GTAV | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

The Witcher 3 | Low @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 56 FPS Average | Playable

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and PRIME95.

Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 46℃±2℃

After we changed the thermal paste for both CPU and GPU
New CPU Idle temperature: 41℃±2℃
New GPU idle temperature: 36℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.59GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±5℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 72℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.76GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 72℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.59GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 94℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 65℃±1℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±1℃
The GPU temperature is around 64℃

Under MAX pressure test(PRIME95 100% + Furmark), the Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±5℃
The GPU temperature is around 69℃

The thermal snapshots under MAX pressure test(PRIME95 100% + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 31℃ on both sides of the vents and 53℃ on the top middle of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 58℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 56℃ on both sides of the vents

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 61dBA

Overall, the cooling performance of this Stealth 15M is very impressive, thanks to MSI’s 6-Heatpipe cooling system! They seem to have put in quite a bit of work and effort to make such extreme cooling on an ultra-thin and light laptop, well done, MSI!

Disassembling analysis

The Ultra-thin D panel, the large aperture area reduces overall weight and increases the heat dissipation

The main inside look
The motherboard is fully covered with a black insulating tape to stop components that could be shorted by a bent back cover. However, this layer of tape is extremely sticky and has a complex adhesive surface that can be easily damaged. This increases the difficulty of further upgrades

After we took off the insulating tape, rams and SSD are on the back of this motherboard

The backside of the motherboard and the C Panel inside looking

Dynaudio Tech 2W Speakers left and right

Battery, 4600mAh manufactured by Simplo, 3-cell 52.4Wh

The Touchpad inside looking

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes heatsink
The exhausting fans are 2 x BS5405HS-U4W(DC 5V 1A) and U4X(DC 5V 1A) manufactured by A-power

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The 11th Gen INTEL i7-1185G7 CPU with Intel Iris Xe Graphics

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G1-65-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q with 6GB GDDR6

Samsung GDDR6 VRAM

The Intel JHL8040R Thunderbolt™4 controller chip

The 75DP159 HDMI IC Control Chip from Texas Instruments

The STM32F072 Mainstream Arm Cortex-M0 USB line MCU from STMicroelectronics

ENE KB9548GF Keyboard controller IC

Realtek RTS5260 PCIe UHS-III card reader controller chip

Realtek ALC233 Audio controller chip

Winbond 25Q80EWNIG Bios chip

SSD: 512G Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AI1 NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

SUMMARY

The first thing that can be seen is that gaming laptops have gradually evolved into thin and light office-level laptops, thanks to a new generation of CPU processor, more power-efficient and without the need to install heavy copper tube heatsink. The large openings in the case not only effectively reduce weight, but the rational design of the air ducts also allows for better heat dissipation. Unfortunately, this design inevitably reduces the strength of the case, so we have to settle for the next best thing.

Secondly, the 144Hz display panel used by MSI is not capable of handling graphics and image processing because of its low colour gamut, which is a waste of the 11th gen i7’s performance. At the same time, probably taking into account the price/performance ratio, MSI uses a PCIe Gen3 SSD, although a bit of a waste of PCIe Gen4 SSD slot, but support for Thunderbolt™4 makes external high-speed portable hard drives and external daisy-chain display possible, as a laptop positioned in the gaming, theoretically does not have any impact.

Again, the performance of Xe Graphic brought by Intel is really good, much stronger than the same run on the Summit engineering prototype we tested earlier and should be the result of the driver update optimisation. Gaming performance is still there, and despite the inability to enable advanced effects and high resolution, business laptops with this CPU should be able to do light gaming as well.

Finally, We have to say that MSI has done a really good job of cooling this time. It’s a bit noisy with Cooler Boost on, but who doesn’t have a headset for gaming? In overclock mode, as long as the CPU doesn’t call the AVX instruction set on a large scale, it’s hard to thermally downconvert, and even if it does, it’s only by a very small margin, and the player may not even feel it.

MSI has not announced the price of the laptop, but we have reason to believe that the price of this main thin and light laptop should not be too outrageous, after all, not equipped with per-key RGB and Steelseries certified keyboard and low colour gamut of the high refresh rate screen. Hopefully, MSI will surprise us with the price.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD

MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Product Specification

MSI Alpha 15 A3DDK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/Alpha-15-A3DX/Specification

Product Unboxing

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

The inner box is made of black cardboard. The new green Alpha logo and MSI is printed in the middle of the box

The side of the inner box has the specs and model number printed on the label as usual

The laptop is protected by a thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is wrapped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Accessories bag contains an instruction manual and some M.2 mount screws

Product Analysis

Compared to the GP65 series, Alpha 15 has the same design on the A panel. The only difference is the Alpha logo is actually printed on the panel and it won’t light up

The D panel has a similar design, or they are using the exact same case

The maximum opening angle is about 140°

The 144 Hz Free-sync supported B panel has a thin-bezel design, using a full-sized keyboard and a large-sized Key-separation designed touchpad

The RGB Per-key keyboard comes from Steelseries

The AMD Ryzen & Radeon sticker

The Alpha 15 nameplate sticker

The large touchpad

There is a small triangle shape design next to the arrow key

The HD camera supports 30fps@720p and the microphone is next to it

The rear side of the laptop has a GT series like design, which increases the cooling area

The power supply is the 180W ADP-180MBK from Delta, the output is 19.5, 9.23A

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the three indicators in the middle are wifi, battery, and hard drive

The laptop rear side – The vent is not a symmetrical design

The laptop right side – I/O is 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, a full-size SD (XC/HC) card readers and the power jack

The laptop left side – I/O is the Kensington lock port, Killer Gb LAN, an HDMI(4K @ 60Hz), a mini DP, a USB3.2 Type-A Gen2 and headphone + microphone port

Disassembling Analysis

From the back vent we can see through the black colourised heatsink

Quickly removed all screws from the D panel, the inside of this laptop is shown below — the heatsink with 7 heat pipes is covering the CPU, GPU and their power supply chips

The D Panel plate

The back side view of the Alpha 15. The ram area is covered by an isolated pad

The ram and SSD area. Only 1 SSD slot and 2 so-dimm slots are implemented

The 2.5″ HDD area. This socket allows users to put an extra 2.5″ HDD/SSD for storage expansion

After removing the motherboard, we can see the Keyboard ribbon cable and the touchpad PCB

The motherboard front/back

The AMD Ryzen CPU – YM3700C4T4MFG with Radeon RX Vega 10 GPU. FP5 socket, Max Turbo 4.0GHz 4 core / 8 Threads

The AMD RadeonT RX5500M Graphic chip

The wireless chip – a rare AzureWave AW-CB375NF 2×2 802.11AC with Bluetooth v5

The Samsung 16G (2 x 8G) DDR4 2666 So-dimm

The 6-Cell 51Wh Battery BTY-M6H manufactory by Simplo

The Giant-sized speaker, this version is not certified by Dynaudio

SSD is from Western Digital, SN520 NVMe PCIe Gen3 x 2, Up to 1700/1400 MB/s Read/Write speed

The 7-pipes designed Heatsink with black colour finished design

The exhausting fans are from Aavid Thermalloy
PAAD06015SL 0.55A 5VDC N426

PABD07012SH 1.0A 5VDC N425

Thermal & Noise Analysis

We are running Aida64 pressure test get a CPU and GPU temperature recording

After boosting CPU and Graphic card, we have taken this snapshot of the thermal distribution of the computer

Aida64 Single CPU Burnning test without activate Cooler Boost Fan
CPU Temperature ~78°C

Aida64 Single CPU Burning – Cooler Boost Fan activated
CPU Temperature ~79°C
It’s quite interesting because when Cooler Boost mode has been activated, the temperature has risen by 1°C

Aida64 CPU & GPU Burnning test without activate Cooler Boost Fan
CPU Temperature ~71°C

Aida64 CPU & GPU Burnning – Cooler Boost Fan activated
CPU Temperature ~70°C
It’s also interesting because when Cooler Boost mode was active this time, the temperature dropped by 1°C

Noise Level when idle ~48dB

Noise Level when full loading ~51.7dB

Noise Level when Cooler Boost mode activated ~65.4dB

Noise Level when Cooler Boost mode activated | in front ~56.7dB

Hardware & Software Introduction

AIDA64 Summary

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Aida64 Motherboard Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2600 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Realtek 8822CE 802.11AC with Bluetooth v5

Screen Panel – 15.6″ FHD Panel, 1080P 144Hz manufactured by AUO

The MSI Alpha 15 desktop wallpaper

AMD Radeon Settings

MSI Dragon Center
Mode Settings – Gaming

Mode Settings – Creator

Mode Settings – User Scenario

Mode Settings – General Settings

Monitor

MSI Ambient RGB Link

MSI My Device

Live Update

Tools

Steelseries Engine 3 RGB Keyboard Settings

Normally the AMD platform is very susceptible to overheating, but this time, what we did not expect is that the temperature control of AMD Ryzen 3 platform is constantly stable. Even if the laptop is running at full speed, the overall temperature does not exceed 85°C. Compared with the same level Intel platform, which frequently exceeds 95°C overheating and throttling, the Ryzen 3 platform remains at about 79°C and does not have a large fluctuation. The result is very good.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is around 80% performance compared with a desktop version

CPU-Z Onboard AGPU detail

GPU-Z Onboard AGPU snapshots

GPU-Z RX5500M

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK test result

Aida64 GPGPU Benchmark

SSD Benchmark – Aida64

ASSSD 1G/10G test

Crystal Disk Info

PCMark : 4,910

PCMark Web results

3DMark Fire Strike : 10,342

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 5,657

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 3,123

3DMark Time Spy : 3,976

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 1,819

3DMark Sky Diver : 21,713

3DMark Port Royal/VRS : Not Supported

3DMark API Overhead : Not Supported

Unigine Superposition (Normal 1080P) : 7,893 | Avg FPS : 69.04

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 1080P) : 2,447 | Avg FPS : 18.30

SUMMARY

In general, Alpha 15 is a mid-range mainstream gaming laptop with a relatively balanced configuration. Although the performance of the RX5500M is not perfect, it meets our expectations. This card has similar performance compared with a desktop GTX1060 6G, and it beats the AMD RX580 mobile version and is much better than the Nvidia GTX1650 mobile version. This means that AMD has returned to the mid-range market for gaming laptop graphics cards, indicating that AMD ’s massive counterattack is coming, and also adding a little competition to the gaming graphics card battlefield. It’s a good start.

The price of AU$1,599 is pretty good, plus its stable thermal control and overall performance, the MSI Alpha 15 will be very competitive in the recent gaming laptop market.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 84/100

EPIC REWARD: EDITOR’S CHOICE & VALUE AWARD

MSI Alpha 15 A3DDK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Product Specification

GE65 Raider 9SF Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GE65-RAIDER-9SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

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

The inner box is made of black cardboard. Unlike the GT series, there are no lines and patterns on the GE series box

The laptop is protected by a thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is wrapped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the previous-gen GE63 8SF, 9SF has taken off the RGB L-shaped decorative strip on the A panel, replaced with two I-shaped red-light strips, and changed the red dragon shield in favour of a silver metal onel

The D panel has increased the heat dissipation

The maximum opening angle is about 130°

The 240 Hz B panel has the thin-bezel design, using a full-sized keyboard and a large-sized Key-separation designed touchpad

The RGB Per-key keyboard comes from Steelseries

The 2.2(2x2W Speaker,2x3W Woofer) sound system is still from Dynaudio

The GE63 nameplate sticker

The rear side of the laptop has a GT series like design, which increases the area of the cooling and prints the ‘Raider’ nameplate

The power supply is the 280W ABP-280BB from Delta, the output is 20V, 14A

The laptop overall weight: 2.36KG

The power adapter package overall weight: 1.03KG

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the thickness of 27 mm, the three indicators in the middle are wifi, battery, and hard drive

The laptop rear side – The heat sink cover is redesigned and enlarged

The laptop right side – I/O is 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, a full-size SD (XC/HC) card readers and the power jack

TThe laptop left side – I/O is the Kensington lock port, Killer Gb LAN, an HDMI(4K @ 60Hz), a mini DP, a USB3.2 Type-A Gen2 and headphone + microphone port

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2600 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 1TB Samsung PM981
HDD – 1TB Seagate Barracuda

Screen Panel – 15.6″ IGZO Panel, 1080P 240Hz manufactured by Sharp

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is around 80% performance compared with a desktop version i9-9900K

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK test result

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 9,009

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,720

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 1080P) : 4,602 | Avg FPS : 34.42

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080P,HQ pack) : 8,074

Overclocking Test

Since the MSI Dragon Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to Auto mode and Cooler Boost mode if necessary

We also enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

None Overclocking Idle – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,600rpm | CPU package Temp : 59°C | CPU average FQ ≈ 3.1Ghz

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both Auto and Max cooling, CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,520rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.6Ghz (Max 23% loss)

In MSI Dragon Center, under Turbo mode, we have maximised all OC settings both on CPU and GPU

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,400rpm | CPU package Temp : 81°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.3Ghz (Max 7% loss)

Overclocking Idle – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU package Temp : 51°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.7Ghz

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.9Ghz (21% loss)

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,520rpm | CPU package Temp : 97°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.7Ghz (Max 22% loss)

PRIME95 Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,485rpm | CPU package Temp : 84°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.6Ghz (3% loss)

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark Normal test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on – CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 72°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.21Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.75Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 78°C

3DMARK Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU Avg package Temp : 68°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.7Ghz (Max 16% loss)

UNIGINE Superposition Test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU Avg package Temp : 65°C | CPU FQ ≈ 2.3Ghz

Overclocking summary
The MSI GE65 Raider 9SF is only average in terms of heat dissipation. Compared with the GT76’s 11 heat pipes and the double-layer 4 fan design, GE65’s 7 heat pipes are a bit weaker, which causes overheating and throttling issues for the CPU and GPU overclocking. Although the Intel i9-9880H has only 45W TDP and running together with an overclocked RTX 2070, the total power consumption close to 160W.

In actual use, Aida64’s single FPU test will lead to overheating issues for your CPU, in some AAA games, the temperature of CPU and GPU will probably remain at 70°C – 75°C. There is no throttling, and during gameplay, it is recommended to turn on the Cooler Boost mode to prevent overheating. However, after ray tracing is turned on, if the DLSS setting is not opened simultaneously, the in-game fps will be extremely low. When we connected a external 4K monitor to test more 2K and 4K games, their in-game fps is around 30 and sometimes will drop below 25. After the DLSS is turned on, the fps is just barely acceptable.

SUMMARY

We really like the overall design of the MSI GE65, which is thinner and packs a punch compared with other brands at a similar level. As a portable gaming device, the GE65 has a powerful and balanced hardware configuration.

For the design, the mould of thin-bezel designed GE75 is feasible to apply on the GE63 directly, but it is unbelievable that the 15-inch thin-bezel design has forced MSI to give up previous heatsink module. However, MSI made the decision to directly cut off the right outlet in order to use the old heatsink mould. Due to the limitation of the laptop body size, the volume of the right fan’s air chamber has been compressed again. Even if the heat-dissipating module on the right side was castrated, the body of the laptop will still be unable to cope with the power interface. Therefore, the power interface and the rest I/O ports on the right side were moved to the front half.

In the heat dissipation design, GE65 uses a ‘7 copper tubes + double fans’ design, but this mould has only a single air outlet on the right side, which is about 25cm² of the specification and a 45W TDP. The part of CPU’s copper tube is actually shared with the graphics card, so as long as the graphics card has a high temperature, this i9 has frequent throttling issues.

In terms of price, AUD$4,599 has a $1,000 higher than the previous generation GS65 Stealth 9SF. It should be noted that the GS65 Stealth 9SF uses the i7-9750H and a Max-Q version RTX 2070 graphics card, and the rest of the hardware is basically similar to GE65 9SF, and the whole machine is lighter and thinner, and the heat dissipation has very good control. Although the performance of GE65 exceeds the GS65 9SF, the cost-performance ratio suffers.

In general, MSI has always been a bridgehead of the laptop field and likes to be the first to innovate, but it is always copied by other manufacturers in the future. Although the laptop has integrated some components from other manufacturers, it also weakened MSI’s brand cohesion. Cohesion is a magic weapon to ensure that a brand has a long-lasting market, and we also believe MSI will continue to improve its brand cohesion and brand image in the future.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 82/100

EPIC REWARD: EDITOR’S CHOICE

GE65 Raider 9SF OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

In order to support the powerful performance, GT76 Titan DT 9SG uses MSI’s new generation Cooler Boost Titan cooling system, with 4 sets of turbofans and 11 high-performance cooling ducts designed to bring greater airflow and heat dissipation, which is 2.25 times higher than the traditional dual fan design.

So let’s dig in the details with the following benchmark.

Product Specification

GT76 Titan DT 9SG Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GT76-Titan-9SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
Like the previous MSI packaging, the GT76 Titan’s packaging has night sky black colour, and the front of the MSI dragon shield has a large red domineering dragon pattern behind it

The back of the package is a multi-angled line avant-garde design of the GT76 Titan laptop, which is very fashionable

The GT76 TITAN’s electroplated red text and red beveled design on the side bring a sense of sharpness

The notebook is protected by the thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the similar size GS75 Stealth, the GT76 Titan DT 9SG is more biased towards their Prestige series laptop

Although the rest material is made of plastic, the re-designed side A provides a diffused channel for its thick and prominent rear exhaust pipe. Plus, a cool RGB lighting system around the body is a bonus

RGB strips are distributed at the rear, left, front, right, and keyboard sections

The heat-dissipating part at the back of the laptop mimics the design of supercars, and all the sharp corners act to prevent scratches

The design of the Dragon Shield has been changed from the old red to the silver. This custom shield looks and feels expensive

The keyboard comes from Steelseries. This time, the mechanical keyboard has not been used to reduce the weight and thickness of the whole machine

The RGB brightness of the keyboard is pretty well distributed, and the built-in Fn function key can change the RGB effect directly

The 2.1 sound system is still from Dynaudio

The C panel buttons from left to right are the Cooler Boost button, the on/off switch button and the Dragon Center button

The touchpad is separated by the touch area and buttons, which avoids accidental touch and improves the feel

The GT76 nameplate sticker

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

The power supply is the classic “double-headed dragon”, two 230W A12-230P1A from Chicony with 4pin interface design, these adapters can be replaced by the Delta ADP-230EB T

Power aggregation Adapter, the computer side of this adapter is a special connector, if it is damaged, then it cannot be replaced, the only way is to contact customer service and request a replacement

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the thickness of 42 mm is reduced compared to the previous generation, and the bottom side has integrated an RGB light strip

The laptop rear side – The heat sink almost covers the entire rear side and it is the heat dissipation channel of the entire machine

The laptop right side – I/O are the Micro SD card readers, 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen2, 1 x mini DP and 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz)

The laptop left side – I/O are the power jack, Killer 2.5Gb LAN, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / DP / Thunderbolt™3), 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, headphone port and microphone port

The laptop overall weight: 4.21KG

The power adapter package overall weight: 2.43KG

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is B173ZAN03.0, 17.3″, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS IGZO, 100% Adobe RGB, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
Before the calibration, we have tested the MSI TRUEcolour application, but the software remains at the previous version, there is no “Adobe RGB” mode but a Designer mode instead, it’s not quite functional

According to the media update email from MSI, we have installed the latest MSI TRUE COLOR, now it shows the correct model and it’s functional

We are using the Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite for screen calibration, the screen temperature is under 6500K
The Gamut test result, this panel comes in with 100% of sRGB, 98% of AdobeRGB

The Tone Response test result, the two curves almost coincide

The Brightness & Contrast tests result

The OSD tests results

The Screen Uniformity tests result
Colour Uniformity for Brightness from 50% to 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness from 50% to 100%

Colour Accuracy test result, Average ΔE≈0.55

There is almost no difference before and after the colour calibration. The quality of this screen is very good.

Hardware & Software Introduction

BIOS details, the main view

BIOS details, SSD details

BIOS details, Advanced view

BIOS details, Advanced view, Raid details

MSI Desktop Background Picture

Windows 10 Info page

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Memory Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E3000 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 2 x 512GB Samsung PM981 Raid-0

Steelseries Engine 3

MSI Nahimic Control Panel

Overclocking Test

Since the MSI Dragon Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to Auto mode and Cooler Boost mode if necessary

We also enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

None Overclocking Idle – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,700rpm | CPU package Temp : 52°C | CPU average FQ ≈ 4.0Ghz

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both Auto and Max cooling, CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,580rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.6Ghz (9% loss)

In MSI Dragon Center, under Turbo mode, we have maximised all OC settings both on CPU and GPU

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,200rpm | CPU package Temp : 75°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.1Ghz (23% loss)

Overclocking Idle – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,580rpm | CPU package Temp : 63°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.8Ghz

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.9Ghz (21% loss)

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,530rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz (24% loss)

PRIME95 Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,485rpm | CPU package Temp : 85°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.2Ghz (16% loss)

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark 4K Normal test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 69°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.72Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.70Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 66°C

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark 4K + 8xMSAA stress test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 72°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.89Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.75Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 43°C

Overclocking summary
The GT76 TITAN DT 9SG uses a desktop-class CPU, and the desktop CPU generates more heat either from the power supply module or the CPU itself. This requires large-area multi-channel heat pipes plus multiple high-speed turbofans to balance the heat for efficient discharge. luckily, MSI has always been ahead of other brands in thermal design.

Under actual usage, it is difficult to break the power and heat limit. During the test, whether opening a large number of big software or playing AAA games and broadcasting at the same time, the CPU temperature has been very good, and there is no CPU throttling happened.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference compared with an i9-9900K on a desktop

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK 4K Stress test

SSD Benchmark – AS SSD 10GB tests

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

SSD Benchmark – Anvil’s Storage Utilities

SSD Benchmark – Blackmagicdesign DST

PCMark10 Extended Benchmark: 7,979
Results Link: http://www.3dmark.com/pcm10exb/71340

3DMark API Overhead Feature Test :

3DMark Fire Strike : 21,510

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 11,628

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 6,262

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 4K) : 8,464 | Avg FPS : 63.31

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K,HQ pack) : 3,126

HALDDEAD2 Bench : 61.28FPS

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

Thermal and Noise Tests

Test room temperature : 16℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 49℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 42℃
AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 99℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 76℃

The surface full load temperature :

The surface full load temperature (Back part of the exhausting fence):

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : Front | around 57 dB

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : Exhausting fence | around 78 dB

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The heat dissipation system uses up to 11 heat pipes and 4 fans (dual-layer design, 2 on top and 2 on bottom), we can see 7 pipes directly from the D panel

The power supply uses a 90Wh eight-cell battery, which requires a single 330W or two 240W adapters. If you choose the i9-9900K, it uses the latter

Battery, 6250mAh manufactured by Getac, 90Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

The flagship design of 3 SSD slots working with superRaid

SSD : Samsung PM981 512GB x 2

WIFI & Bluetooth card : Killer 1650x from Intel(AX200NGW), 2.4G/5G, AX200 2×2 Wi-Fi 6, 1024QAM and 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

Sound system: LR+SUB, 2 x 2W midrange units are distributed on the left and right sides, and a 3W woofer is placed next to the touchpad

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G3-A1 which is the Nvidia TU104 chipset

The LGA CPU socket with INTEL i9-9900K

The LGA CPU socket with power supply module

The INTEL i9-9900K Desktop level CPU

The middle power control board, driven by an STM32F072 microcontroller

The RGB board

The Whole Beast Cooling system of GT76

The Graphics Memory and power supply Heatsink: 2 Pipes

The Graphic chipset Heatsink: 4 Pipes

The CPU chipset and power supply Heatsink : 5 Pipes

Main cooling fans are from AAVID, PABD18525BH, around 5200rpm speed

Supporting Layer 2 twin-pack cooling fans are from AAVID, PABD0A308SH, around 5000rpm speed

Touchpad board

The motherboard front side

The motherboard backside

HDD is Seagate Barracuda Pro 1TB

The disassembled laptop

SUMMARY

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is a very bold laptop with an overclocked desktop-class Intel i9 processor, equipped with MSI’s new generation cooling system that includes a total of 4 turbine fans and eleven cooling pipes designed to suppress this top-level 8-core 5.0GHz CPU. Supported by the Nvidia RTX 2080 BGA video chip to achieve extreme performance, the GT76 Titan DT 9SG easily matches the performance of a desktop computer.

In terms of design, the body shape is guided by the RGB light to show a sports car style streamline appearance, and the metal texture accompanied by the carbon fiber grain design to make the product aesthetics more in line with a supercar. The RGB full-colour lighting effect makes dazzling light toward the laptop body line, while the narrow frame design reduces the overall size of the body, providing a refreshing gameplay experience for players.

In terms of weight, GT76 Titan DT 9SG is also significantly lower than the previous generation, the laptop weight is about 4.4kg. However, compared to those thinner, but lower-performance gaming laptops, the mobility of GT76 is still not that good.

On the price part, the pricing of AUD$7,399 is indeed a bit high for ordinary users, but compared to the performance and thermal design of other brands, this notebook can be used not only for games, but also for some professional applications and designs.

As a manufacturer of e-sports hardware products, MSI has been deeply involved in the field of gaming hardware and peripherals. The GT76 Titan DT 9SG itself is an achievement of a commitment to research with development spirit and the continuous exploration in the field of e-sports hardware at MSI. In the face of the turbulent gaming laptop market, MSI is more concerned about products, only the quality and reliability of the products themselves will be sustained by consumers. MSI will continue to optimise product performance based on the rapid changes in the gaming market, making it the best choice for players.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 87.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER, EDITOR’S CHOICE & DESIGN AWARD

GT76 Titan DT 9SG OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Product Specification

GS65 8RF-212AU uses the latest Intel 8^th Gen i7-8750H processor with a 15.6” Full HD IPS screen, 144Hz refresh rate. Graphics card is Nvidia GTX 1070 Max-Q platform. Memory uses DDR4. In addition, MSI provides a 180W Slim power adapter, which is a good decision.

Product Analysis – A/D Panel
The outer packaging is still the classical MSI style – Laptop case and PSU box

PSU box

The gaming grade laptop usually come with a super-big-and-silly-brick power supply, MSI seems to be the first manufacturer to respond, the size of this power brick is significantly reduced, especially the thick-less design, which will benefit users to carry out more convenient.

The power adapter is 180W, super slim design.

The laptop protector bag has the classic MSI dragon shield logo printed on

On the top case, only with a golden MSI dragon shield Logo but nothing. Very impressive and clean. The material of A panel is full aluminium, very comfortable touch feeling.

All edges are chamfered and with golden anode process.

Side hinges and cooling vents are also adorned with gold

The laptop length is around 360mm, width is around 245mm, full height is around 25mm

There is no I/O at the front of the laptop

The back side of the laptop is full of intake heat sink

The left side of the laptop has a Kensington lock port, the heat outlet tunnel, the Killer ethernet port, 2 x USB 3.0 ports and audio ports.

The right side of the laptop has a USB 3.0 port, a USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 output, a mini-dp output, a HDMI output, a charging port and heat outlet tunnel. However, the one important thing that we need to pay attention is the right side I/O design is not really suit for user who using mouse at the right side of the laptop, especially when user is actually using an external monitor and also plug the ac adaptor. The thick and not right-angle designed HDMI cable will be easy to block the mouse movement.

D panel is back of the laptop, nearly half of the area is cooling purposes. There are two anti-slip rubber pads has been implemented at top and bottom. The left and right speakers are DYNAUDIO certified, quality is just average.

Product Analysis – B/C Panel
The super-slim designed bezel is the eyeball catcher, the left and right edges are only 5mm thick, top edge is around 9mm and 30mm of the bottom edge.

The top of B panel also has a build-in HD webcam(30fps@720p) and microphone

The bottom of B panel has printed the MSI logo

The C panel has integrated a full-size SteelSeries RGB backlight keyboard, which has a solid tactile feel.

The power button is located in the middle which has a nice looking golden circle around it.

The heat outlet grid has the same design as the back panel.

The touchpad has the same design as the power button.

The laptop could flip up to 180 degrees horizontal. And the total weight is only 1.88kg (4.1 lbs)

Screen Analysis
We are using Spyder4 Elite professional colorimeter during the evaluation test session. All test results are based on 120nit/6500K colour temperature.

GS65 uses a model ‘B156HAN08.0’ IPS 144Hz and 74% Adobe RGB panel from AUO

After calibration, we can find out the panel is around 74% of Adobe RGB, 69% of NTSC and 96% of sRGB. ΔE≈1.41

Before the calibration

After the calibration

As we mentioned before, GS65 is a gaming grade laptop, so we didn’t test the further panel attributes such as Gray Ramp, Luminance Uniformity for Brightness or White Balance etc.

Flash rate test

We are using the famous UFO test
link: https://www.testufo.com/framerates
the setting is : 3 UFO, black background and 3840 px/s

Performance Testing
Win10 and MSI Dragon Center are pre-installed into the laptop

Turbo Mode is the overclocking function.

The True Color mode is a quick selection for different use perposes

CPU-Z snapshot, Intel latest 8th Gen CPU

GPU-Z shows the graphics card is nVIDIA GTX 1070 MAX-Q, 8GB GDDR5

The pre-installed SSD is Samsung PM981 OEM M.2 NVMe, 512G

Run-time Benchmark Test
3DMark Time Spy : 5205

Time Spy Extreme : 2460

Sky Diver : 35 707

Fire Strike : 14 724

Fire Strike Extreme : 7442

Fire Strike Ultra : 3830

Cinebench R15 Test
OpenGL : 105.6 fps
CPU multi-core : 1133cb
CPU single core : 172cb

Battery Drain Test

We are using 3D benchmark software and a hardcore video to test the battery drain
3D Benchmark: 2 hours 47 minutes.
Hardcore Video: 5 hours 8 minutes.

Thermal and Noise Tests
Test room temperature : 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 55℃±4℃
GPU idle temperature : 48℃

AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 91℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 80℃

The surface temperature during full load:

The back cover temperature during full load:

Then, we turned on the full fan speed ‘Cooler Boost mode’ via MSI Dragon center,

After max cooling mode has been switched on, CPU temperature has dropped around 10℃ for all cores.

Noise level when system idle: 38.5dB

Noise level when CPU and GPU Full loaded: 46.6dB

Noise level next to exhausting fan: 56.8dB

After switch on the full fan speed ‘Cooler Boost mode’,
From left side to right side, the noise levels are: 71.5dB, 72.4dB, 73.0dB, 74.6dB

Disassembling analysis
We are using the Wowstick electric screwdriver, the back cover is only locked with few of same size screws.

The left fan is from A-power, model: 16Q2-CPU-CW

Battery is 15.2V, 80.25Wh, total of 5280mAh

Some connectors and the ENE KB9028Q Embedded control chip, the upper side is GPU and CPU

Wi-fi Bluetooth card is Intel 9560NGW, AKA: Killer 1550i, it’s a wireless AC standard which using the m.2 PCIe interface, it is a powerful card that integrated Bluetooth 5.0 and the max theoretical networking throughput is up to 1.73Gbps.

Right side is the dual-fan for CPU and GPU, same model as the left one.

After removing all cable, screw, and connectors, the upper side of the motherboard can be taken out.

We can find the m.2 NVMe ssd slot and DDR 4 slots, we can fully put 2 of NVMe SSDs and 2 of DDR 4 SoDIMMs.
After the test, the SSD1 slot can take both M.2 SATA and NVMe SSD, SSD2 slot only support NVMe SSD.
The OEM DDR4 is from Kingston, model: KVR24S17D8/16, which is the low-voltage 1.2V 2400MHz CL17 DDR4
The OEM SSD is from Samsung, model: PM981(970EVO OEM), which is an M.2 NVMe SSD, 3D V-nand flash, 512G, the main controller is PHOENIX (960EVO/PRO is POLARIS), type S4LR020. Speed test is around 3GB/s read, 1.8GB/s write, random r/w IOPs is 270,000/420,000.

Summary
As a new generation of MSI GS series ultra-thin gaming grade laptop, GS65 has various of improvement compared to the previous product. First, the appearance design becomes more introverted and spiritual. The visual impact brought by the super-slim side frame is absolutely beyond our imagination, the 144Hz IPS panel has a huge improvement for the gaming experience, the control of weight and thickness has been extremally reduced. Second, the battery life has increased due to the 80Wh battery, and the full x4 speed, dual-slot of NVMe SSDs and DDR4 memory slots can also be easily upgraded and expanded. Third, the max cooling function cooperated with three turbine fans and heap pipes will effectively control the heat when hardcore gaming or other heavy loading purposes. In addition, the brick-looked power supply has been slimed after the thin treatment. Taken together, GS65 is both a gaming laptop and capable of any occasion outside uses. It’s lightweight and super easy to carry, and a very good and comprehensive laptop.

MSI GS65 8RF-212AU Official Website: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GS65-Stealth-Thin-8RF