MSI Gaming Laptop for Under $800

Usually mobile gaming comes at a hefty price-tag. However, MSI has announced its new GX630-028US gaming notebook with a surprisingly low price of US$799.00

For such a low price claim on a gaming notebook though, what would one expect in terms of specifications? According to MSI, you get an AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core, a Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, a 250 GB SATA hard drive, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, a Super Multi optical drive, Bluetooth & WiFi, and a 2 megapixel web cam. MSI also throws in its Turbo Drive technology, which allows you to overclock the notebook by as much as 15 percent.

In terms of the design, the new MSI notebook is largely generic in its appearance. Although it’s nothing to write home about, the unit doesn’t try to be more than it is. Aside from its looks (see pictures below), you get HDMI output for use on large TVs, one E-SATA connector and a 6-cell battery.

Given that the 15.4-inch widescreen display resolution is only 1280 x 800 with the GeForce 9600 GT pushing the pixels behind it, you should be able to play most games at an enjoyable frame rate with pretty good visuals. Just don’t expect top-notch performance in resource hungry games such as Crysis, Far Cry 2 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R on this one — those types of heavy games are still better experienced on a high end desktop.

If you’re in the market for a cheap and decent laptop, the new MSI gaming notebook may serve you right. The price point is good, and you do get decent hardware. You would be hard pressed to find anything that plays games decently at a lower price point.

More information on the GX630 can be found on the MSI Web site.