The overall design of the Creator 15 is similar to the Prestige series P65, it’s equipped with the Intel’s 10th gen Core i7-10875H processor, 16GB DDR4 memory, 1TB NVMe SSD and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

MSI CREATOR 15 A10SET Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Content-creation/Creator-15-A10SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton but the internal packaging is similar to the PS series

The AC adapter 20V 9A 180W and manufactured by Delta

The weight of the AC adapter is 407g

The internal box

Product Analysis

The main aesthetic of the Creator 15

The Intel 10th gen logo and Nvidia RTX logo stickers

The Creator 15 benefit badge

The thin-bezel design

The Keyboard backlight

The touchpad size is integrated with a TPM v2 chip to enhance the security

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

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The design of the rear shaft is fancy and smooth

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Not symmetrical, but the opening area is large enough to provide a better air duct

The laptop right side – 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack, 1 x Type-C(USB3.2 Gen2), 1 x SD (XC/HC) Card Reader, 1 x LAN

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

The opening angle of this laptop is 180 degrees

The laptop weight: 2.26KG, 2.8KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Analysis

Unfortunately, this model is not the 4K version. There are 4k models available for professional users.

The benefit sticker of this screen

The viewing angles are both vertically and horizontally around 178 degrees and are without colour or brightness distortion.

Because the version we analysed has a 10-point touch panel, something that not many laptops usually incorporate.

Run-time Benchmark Test

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

Cinebench

3DMARK & PCMark10

Gaming

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation by using AIDA64.
Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 49℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 47℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10875H is running normally
Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 78℃±2℃

We are satisfied with the whole cooling system for MSI Creator 15, without many noise issues, the Cooler Boost Trinity+ cooling system can suppress RTX 2060 and Intel i7 10875H without any issue.

SUMMARY

After testing the Creator 15, the first thing we want to highlight is the thermal performance, there is no overheating problem during all tests, the powerful heat sink has done its job well with an acceptable noise level, due to the elegant and only 20mm thick body design.

The autonomy of the equipment has seemed very good that can reach 6 hours with a new generation battery and 99.9Wh that by far exceeds the previous model. The keyboard is stable and comfortable for typing, while the touchpad is quite good either.

The facial recognition and fingerprint sensor also add credit to the team. And the USB connectivity is terse but fast, with a version of 3.2 Gen2 ports and a Thunderbolt 3. The other benefit that MSI brought back is the full-size SD card slot.

At present, the price of this CREATOR 15 A10SET is AU$3,999 and it’s quite high. It should not be far from the GS66 10SF with a better graphics card and a 240Hz screen but a less-powered CPU. Therefore, the CREATOR 15 is an attractive option for those who focus on working with a touch screen but less gaming immerse.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 90/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

MSI Creator 15 A10SET OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

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