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MSI G- and F-series Sandy Bridge laptops stand for gaming and fashion

When Intel unveil new chips, MSI is usually among the first to to snap 'em up. The Taiwanese company's new wave of G- and F-series laptops take advantage of Intel's Sandy Bridge tech.

Rory Reid
2 min read

When Intel unveils new chips, MSI is usually among the first to snap 'em up and cram 'em into new laptops. So it's no surprise to learn the Taiwanese company's announced a wave of brand-new G- and F-series laptops that use Intel's swanky new Sandy Bridge technology.

The G series will consist of the entry-level 15.6-inch GE620 and GR620 gaming systems, designed for casual gamers, plus the slightly more hardcore GT680 and GT780 (pictured above) which pack 15.6- and 17.3-inch displays respectively.

All four come with quad-core Core i7 CPUs that feature Intel's Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, which dynamically overclocks a CPU for a quick performance increase. Interestingly, MSI's also thrown in its own Turbo Drive Engine overclocking facility, which is designed to eke out yet more power, so these may give you a slight performance edge over LAN party regulars with the same hardware.

The GE620 and GR620 laptops will feature mid-range Nvidia GeForce GT series graphics cards, while their GT680 and GT780 brothers get top of the range GeForce GTX 400 and 500-series chips. The latter machines will also feature dual solid-state hard drives, a maximum 16GB of memory and Dynaudio speakers, which are supposed to be pretty decent less rubbish than ordinary laptop speakers.

The F series is, in MSI's words, "A fusion of performance and fashion." Translation: they're a bit slower than the G series, but acne and mullets aren't a prerequisite for owning them. The range will consist of the FX400, FX600, FX700 and FR600 models, each of which will have sub-models with different specs. The FR600 will use a dual-core i5 chip, while the rest will, for the most part, use quad-core i7 chips.

The F series will also feature switchable graphics. Users can choose to activate the standard on-board Intel solution when longer battery life is required, or trigger GeForce GT 500-series graphics when gaming.

The GT680 will ship in late January with a starting price of $1,499 (£965) while the GT780 will ship in Q2 2011 for an as yet unconfirmed price. The F series, meanwhile, will launch in Q1 of 2011 for a starting price of $699 (£450). More on these as we get it.