Software and system restore
The main software that controls the GX60 is
the S-Bar MSI. The lighter-colored icons located on the left are for
configuring the function keys, accessing the Windows Accessory programs,
Windows Programs, and MSI’s We Care. The darker-colored icons control the
screen, touchpad, P1 custom launcher, ECO engine, webcam, Wi-Fi, sleep,
brightness, and volume.
The ECO engine helps control power use by
allowing the machine to be utilized in Movie, Game, Presentation or Office
modes. If you want, the ECO engine is also able to be disabled.
The Atheros Killer Network Manager allows
network traffic to be prioritized for gaming or video streaming.
The
screenshot above is a complete list of everything installed on the MSI GX60
when it is transferred to us.
The screenshot above is a complete list of
everything installed on the MSI GX60 when it is transferred to us. As usual, we
uninstalled as much as possible. Ultimately, this is a gaming computer, and in
our viewpoint, the GX60 should own an efficient operating system for the APU
that is already weak is not dragged down by the background task.
The THX TruStudio Pro software is excellent
if you also utilize the GX60 to entertain. We also let the Atheros Killer
software run. We had the S-Bar installed, but disabled it from running at
start-up.
System
Restore
System
Restore
The GX60 comes with one disc including
drivers and utilities. To have the rest of the discs required for a full system
recovery, you need to burn discs by using the built-in software.
Restoring the system is very easy to
implement. At start-up, just press F3, which is to inform the GX60 that you are
absolutely sure that you want to restore the system, then wait 45 minutes for
the process to complete. After several times of reboots, the system returns to
its factory state.
Fortunately, you are asked what software
you wish to install once the restore process is complete. This allows you to
start with one cleaner system than the configuration available. We wish that
all system builders would include this inherent Windows image for this reason.
Brightness, Contrast, Uniformity and Gamma
Screen inspection and calibration are done
by using Datacolor’s Spyder4Elite calibration system. The system includes a
seven-color sensor plugged into the USB port of the system, and Spyder4Elite
software to control it. All of the metrics and charts below are created by the
Spyder4Elite software. The only changes are a quick crop to yield the images
that are easier to read.
The LG Philips LP156WF1-TLF3 15.6-inch FHD
display in MSI's GX60 is pretty good with the 300 nits of brightness.
Looking at the brightness measurements above, it approaches very close to
meeting that specification. The contrast ratio of 450:1 is very good.
A white point of 6,500K is considered
neutral and close to the color of the midday sun. If a screen is below 6,500K,
it seems warmer, which inclines to the red and orange colors. If a screen is
above 6500K, it seems colder which inclines to the blue color. Increasing the
blue color is popular when displaying the TV screens in a retail environment
since it makes these screens stand out next to the others.
The LG display in the GX60 is very neutral
when it is taken out of the box, with a natural white point of 6,400K. The
color temperature and contrast ratio of the GX60 are also consistent across
almost all brightness levels.
In general, the LG screen has decent
viewing angles. Although there are some changes when the screen is pushed
forward or back, it is rather consistent when you look at it from both sides.
Observing the uniformity of brightness, the
GX60’s screen varies up to 26% at the bottom corners. The brightest area
delivers 288 nits, which is close to the 300-nit spec of the screen. In
general, they are pretty good results. We have seen the same screen that does
better in the other computers.
Uniformity of color on the GX60 is pretty
good. Simply speaking, a Delta-E is generally considered the threshold where
you can see the difference between reference and sample colors. However, that
brings a bit of generality, because the human eye is more sensitive to the
specific colors. Typically, a Delta-E value below two is fairly good. Most of
the GX60’s screens are in the Delta-E 3.
Knocking the screen brightness down to 75%
remarkably improves color uniformity. The uniformity of the screen is very good
in general, and it keeps on at 67% and 50% brightness levels.
The response of GX60’s measured gamma comes
close to the standard 2.2 curve in most Windows systems. A gamma response curve
adjusts how the human eye can see the light and dark colors. Large gamma errors
may pose issues with editing or viewing photos.
