Port and slot placement

MSI spreads the GX630's diverse array expansion ports across the sides, front, and back of the system. It's nice to see manufacturers starting to include eSATA ports on laptops, and the one here is hot-swappable. The rest of the usual suspects are accounted for, including a four-pin FireWire connector next to the right-hand USB port and an HDMI output at the rear. Overall, the placement of the ports makes sense, in particularly since video outputs are located at the rear where their bulky cables are least likely to interfere. That said, there are only two USB ports: one per side. Given that the GX630 can be used as a desktop replacement, limiting the number of USB ports seems counter-productive, especially given the real estate the four audio minijacks take up on the left side. There's certainly plenty of room for additional ports, leaving a blemish on an otherwise excellent array of connectivity options.

Software and bloatware
The GX630 was surprisingly snappy when I booted it up, which is a welcome change of pace from most notebooks from bigger manufacturers. MSI equips the system with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, Service Pack 1, and fairly minimal bloatware. However, considering that the GX630 ships with 4GB of memory, a 64-bit version of Vista would have been more appropriate.

As one might expect, the GX630 includes trial versions of Norton Antivirus and Microsoft Office 2007. It also comes with the Cyberlink suite, Ulead disc writing software, and Reallusion's CrazyTalk Cam Suite, but that's pretty much the extent of the bloat. MSI's own software, smartly centralized under a System Control tray icon, stays out of the way. None of these apps really clog up the system tray, but the Cyberlink software suite is a curious one. It places a widget on the desktop for writing and reading CDs (making the Ulead software somewhat redundant), yet doesn't include the one piece of software you'd really want from Cyberlink: PowerDVD.

MSI's ECO power management and Turbo overclocking software work well enough. The overclocking software takes the processor up to 2.3GHz, but after a reboot, the CPU reverts back to its stock 2GHz speed. On the other side of the coin, the ECO power management software offers a limited number of pre-configured power saving schemes that are unfortunately closed to user modification. You can also ditch ECO in favor of Vista's own built-in power management functionality.

What's in the box
MSI ships the GX630 in a package about as sparse as one might expect given the system's low price tag. Outside of a handful of software discs, the system only comes with a battery and an AC adapter.

The battery is slight, and with a 4800mAh rating, its stores are typical for a six-cell laptop unit. Also typical is the power brick, which appears to be a generic Lite-On unit and seems ridiculously large for what should be a modest system power requirements. The GX630 may be light for its class, but the bulky power brick cancels out some of that goodness. The adapter's connection to the system also feels a little loose when plugged in, unlike the battery, which locks securely into place.