Inside MSI Katana GF66 (12Ux) – disassembly and upgrade options

MSI Katana GF66 (or its twin – the Sword 15) has a pretty decent upgrade options roster.

Check out all MSI Katana GF66 (12Ux) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.


1. Remove the bottom plate

There are 13 Phillips-head screws holding this laptop’s bottom panel in place. After you undo them, pry the panel with a plastic tool, and lift it away from the chassis.


2. Battery

This laptop comes with a 53.5Wh battery pack. It lasted us nearly 6 hours of Web browsing, or 5 hours and 30 minutes of video playback. To take it out, unplug the battery connector, and remove the three Phillips-head screws keeping it attached to the chassis.


3. Memory and storage

The upgrade options here are pretty good. You get two RAM SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, working in dual-channel mode. Storage-wise, you get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots that support Gen 4 drives.


4. Cooling system

The CPU is being cooled by two thick heat pipes, while the three thinner ones are cooling the GPU. Thankfully, both the graphics memory and the VRMs have a heat pipe managing their thermals.

Check out all MSI Katana GF66 (12Ux) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.

MSI Katana GF66 (12Ux) in-depth review

No matter how hard it tries, MSI will always be associated with gaming hardware. However, as with any product out there, you get to choose depending on your budget. And most of the time, your piggy bank is only big enough for a low-end gaming laptop. But what happens, if a low-end device gets high-end hardware? Are the compromises around the additional features worth the higher fps when playing games?These are some of the questions we're going to be answering in today's review of the Katana GF66 (12Ux). Yes, you have figured it - we bought ourselves the unit that has the RTX 3070 Ti. It d[...]

Pros

  • Competitively priced
  • Two SODIMM slots, and up to two M.2 PCIe x4 slot with Gen 4 support
  • Rigid structure
  • Lacks PWM (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
  • 144Hz refresh rate (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
  • Powerful hardware options*

Cons

  • 53% sRGB coverage (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
  • Slow pixel response times and low maximum brightness (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
  • No SD card reader and Thunderbolt 4
  • *Runs hot and fails to extract the maximum out of the hardware
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