Conclusion

Starting with the build quality and design of the GT683DXR we have a system which very much falls into the love it or hate it category. For some the silver trims and orange LEDs will be a bit of a turn off, for others it is something that little bit different that elevates the unit past being a black box. The shaping of the system is also a little retro, it certainly wasn't up to date when we saw it introduced a while back and the addition of a less reflective screen makes it even more classic in its appearance when compared to many other recent systems.

Overall the chassis does feel solid though, even if it lacks the soft touch coating or metallic finish of the competition. The ports are well positioned which is always a bonus on a mobile system and good quality, branded parts are used within. We were also pleased to see that the viewing angles for the system are good and special note needs to be made of the audio system which is one of the most impressive available on a gaming laptop.

In terms of value, building a similar system from a major competitor such as Alienware will cost significantly more and that is before we consider the free backpack, mouse etc that MSI provide.

On the performance front temperatures and battery life are in line with other gaming systems and the presence of an i7 CPU ensures we are always getting great results in tasks which take advantage of the 8 threads. Where we do have an issue is the use of mechanical drives in this model, for any enthusiast who uses SSDs the mechanical models used here will feel sluggish and we feel a 750GB mechanical drive with smaller cache SSD would have been a better configuration, though there is nothing to stop us adding one ourselves and the RAID config here is faster than the majority of laptops. Finally we have the GPU which is one of the key selling points of the GT683DXR, it allows us to game in the latest titles at 1920x1080 with impressive detail levels, ensuring the system succeeds in its main use.