Equinox Review

I have to admit, the performance on the Equinox is amazing. It runs games better than my desktop. I can run Final Fantasy 14 (2.3 now) at max settings with no noticeable frame drop, although my fan starts to freak out and becomes really loud.

My issue with the equinox is not with performance though. After using it for a few weeks I realized something, The keyboard light color is not RED. So I talk to support and they tell me to download the steelseries engine to be able to change the back light. So I was like, cool I'll go do that. I download it with the link that they give me and which links me to the MSI website to get the correct software and drivers. It turns out that this exact laptop is in fact the GS60 Ghost Pro by MSI. I look on newegg and discover you can actually the same product with superior specs(gtx 970m vs 870M, 4710HQ i7 vs 4700HQ i7) and screen for cheaper(3k screen vs non 3k screen)! Free shipping too! The only down side to that particular build is that ssd memory only will have 128gb. all this for 200$ cheaper.


I mean fine, I buy Digital Storm for the customer service and quality but I fail to see it in the equinox. The fact that most of the drivers for the laptop were horribly out of date; it was so bad that the touchpad literally stopped working on me and I had to update the drivers, not to mention the keyboard lighting STILL can't change(tech support doesn't even know why and I'm STILL waiting on a fix). Another nitpicky thing, none of the decals in the video ad are on my laptop. I literally just got a black laptop with 3 stickers on it.

All in all I'm pretty disappointed and regret my purchase. Of course I have to admit it was my fault that I didn't do enough research overall and feel really stupid now that I found the actual laptop I bought was not the "equinox" but the GS60 Ghost Pro by MSI.






Edited by Fatalyz - 22 Oct 2014 at 6:30pm

Touchpad. I guess I didn't elaborate enough but my BIOS was also out of date when I checked it. And my keyboard is still a mystery.

Originally posted by krappei Thanks for the helpful review. I had been doing my research and knew about the Ghost and other similar models but was interested in getting an Equinox once the 980M graphics became available anyways since I had such a great gaming PC from over 4 years ago built by DS. I agree with you that the premium $$ may not be worth the great customer service.

This was my second time buying from DS. I've been disappointed again unfortunately.

Sweet now I'm being told by Alex that "For the unit that we sell, the keyboard is not supposed to change colors".

I don't know where he got this assumption but I CAN already change the color of the keyboard, but only different shades of blue.

I really don't enjoy people who don't know what their talking about to make assumptions like that. Unless the keyboard in this device IS NOT a SteelSeries keyboard(which I don't see why it's not when it looks identical and already has a function to change color) Also: "Would you like it to make it red or leave it as blue? I am in talks with the manufacture on finding you a solution." -Alex. I already know how to fix the problem. Please stop lying to me about this stuff.

I ONLY WANT HELP on getting the steelseries engine to find my keyboard. The GS60 has had similar problems which could be fixed with a bios update(but Mike told me not to update my bios).

Please send me someone who actually know what they are doing.

Edited by Fatalyz - 24 Oct 2014 at 10:29am

This might be the link they gave you, and if not check it out.   The SSE, Steelseries engine. 

http://www.msi.com/support/nb/GS60_2PE_Ghost_Pro.html#down-utility&Win8.1%2064

Within that is the KLM for changing the lighting. 

http://event.msi.com/nb/faq/q16.html

I don't have the laptop, so this might or might not help.

Good luck.


Edited by bprat22 - 24 Oct 2014 at 11:21am

Originally posted by bprat22 This might be the link they gave you, and if not check it out.   The SSE, Steelseries engine.  http://www.msi.com/support/nb/GS60_2PE_Ghost_Pro.html#down-utility&Win8.1%2064Within that is the KLM for changing the lighting.  http://event.msi.com/nb/faq/q16.htmlI don't have the laptop, so this might or might not help.Good luck.

Support did a live session on my laptop and attempted to download the KLM and use it. IT DID NOT work.

I think the main problem is that steelseries cannot detect the keyboard. I did alot of research on this problem and the consensus seems to be: either down grade your bios to T50 or update it to the most recent version. I haven't done it yet because the DS technician Mike I spoke to told me not to do it. He said he would get back to me but he hasn't responded in 4-5 days.

Fatalyz...   Sorry to hear.  I gave it a shot.    If I had the laptop I'd be more help, but hopefully you get this ironed out.    


Good luck. 

Fatalyz,

I'm sorry to see that you're frustrated over the keyboard. Please note, we do NOT promote or mention the features you are trying to unlock on this unit. We do not state or offer the Steelseries software on our laptop, this is something I have mentioned to you previously.

7 days later, Still haven't received anything.

I thought Alex left it at not being able to give the Equinox the software compatibility for Steel Series, but not sure.

Originally posted by ArkansasWoman777 Originally posted by Snaike Originally posted by Fatalyz 7 days later, Still haven't received anything.   Originally posted by Alex We have been in communication quite often for the past week via email...     Things that make you go "Hmmmmm...."   i know right

Actually I did not receive any email from them in that time frame of 7 days.

I had to contact them again and gave the person I was talking to the email logs to show them I in fact did not get anything. It most likely had something to do with the inability to send specific file types through email. I had the fix sent to me through google drive.


Anyways, my final review of the Equinox is this:

Don't buy the equinox. horrendously overpriced for what you are getting. This is essentially a lower funcionality and lower performance MSI ghost pro GS60. Unfortunately I had little no information about the Equinox available to me(other than what DS provided to me) at the time of my purchase so I want to put out this review as a warning.

If you buy the equinox this what you should expect:

Less performance for higher cost. You can buy a laptop for the same price as the equinox but with GTX970m, 3k display and a keyboard with more customization. The tradeoff is the ssd memory is 128 in the model containing the 970M. If you were getting a model identical to the Equinox, expect to pay $300 less and have fully unlocked keyboard functionality.



Edited by Fatalyz - 04 Dec 2014 at 8:20am