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MSI Re-Introduces the "Turbo" Button

Back into laptops this time

Jun 7, 2007 16:06 GMT  ·  By
MSI's GX 600 Santa Rosa Laptop
   MSI's GX 600 Santa Rosa Laptop

Remember the "Turbo" button. Well, your best friend when it comes to baby-overclocking is back. And back with a bang I might add. Because MSI decided to roll out a Core 2 Duo portable fitted with a rather large "Turbo" button which can automatically raise the frequency of the CPU/FSB 20% over its normal value.

So it's back to basics then. I have to say that I've seen the last "Turbo " button back in 1996 when I was trying to get rid of 2 AT 486-DX4 towers. Back in those days the "Turbo" feature also controlled the working frequency of the CPU but it did it in a totally different manner (by either changing the multiplier on the fly or enabling/disabling the L2 cache). Unfortunately the days when you could decrease the load of a Starcaft mission to half the typical time are over.

That doesn't mean the button has lost its appeal. The GX600 which houses this very button is based on the Santa Rosa design and as a result it packs a lot of interesting hardware. Starting with an 800MHz FSB Merom clocked at 2GHz and ending with a mobile 8600GT video card with 512MB of Ram, this laptop currently represents one of MSI best offers.

Evidently being a Santa Rosa also translates in a PM965 Express core packed with 802.11n network module and a 15.4" WXGA display. MSI's GX600 also features HDMI and S-video outputs, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Gigabit LAN, optional Bluetooth, PCMCIA Type II expansion and a separate NUMPAD on the keyboard. Now I don't say that all that hardware is useless but the official head-turner still remains the "Turbo" button.

The automatic overclocking feature only works with the laptop connected to an AC outlet. A quick press of the button will up the speed of the CPU from 2GHz to 2.4GHz while two presses will revert the FSB to its original value (800MHz). Nice and easy.

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