msi workstation MSI CreatorPro X18 Review--song1118's Fair Reviews

[song_1118]

The full text is divided into four articles, totaling over 30000 words (in Chinese), with nearly 200 images and tables.
Due to the abundance of text and images, and the lack of time to translate them into English, only Chinese links can be temporarily provided.
In about two weeks, it will be https://www.song1118.com/ Publish the English version, this website is my personal website and is currently preparing to migrate to the server.

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Some people think that Chinese Loong should use "Loong" instead of "Dragon" in English.
MSI Technology consistently uses Dragon as the mascot for its products.
Therefore, in a flagship store of MSI, the Chinese dragon and the western dragon complement each other in the gold lettering on the red background, which is also very lively and auspicious.

 

 

2024 is the the Year of the Loong in China, and MSI has released a number of 18 inch laptops, among which the following four belong to E-sports laptop (game book):
Titan 18 HX - the successor of the original GT series, the most powerful true Titan, known as Titan 18 Ultra in China;
Raider 18 HX - the successor of the original GE series, a strong attack, now known as Titan 18 Pro in China;
Raider A18 HX - AMD version of GE series, now known as Titan 18 Pro Ryzen version in China;
Stealth 18 AI - the successor of the original GS series, still known as Jueying 18 AI in China.

 

In addition, there are two 18 inch models that have not been sold in China:
A car called Stealth 18 Mercedes AMG Motorsport A1V - jointly released by MSI and Mercedes AMG, should be called "Jueying 18 Mercedes AMG Joint Edition" in Chinese.

 

 

The last one is the protagonist of this article:

CreatorPro X18 HX - the most powerful MWS (Mobile WorkStation) currently available.

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Article 1:
Capture the Azure Dragon! Strongest Mobile Workstation MSI Creator Pro X18 Review Part 1
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7416597611045044755/

 

Article 2:
Azure Dragon shows off to the world  : The Strongest Mobile Workstation MSI Creator Pro X18 Review Part 2
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7420435093988082210/

 

Article 3:
the Azure Dragon blogger: The strongest mobile workstation MSI Creator Pro X18 review Part 3
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7424338968520475146/

 

Article 4:
Flying Dragon in the Sky: The Strongest Mobile Workstation MSI Creator Pro X18 Review Part 4

https://www.toutiao.com/article/7424859985596924442/

 

 

[1610ftw]

Thanks for the review - I like how you have the WT75 in there that is a real classic and also how you demonstrate/point out that there would be enough space for 4 m2 SSD slots in the X18, even with MSI's current way of arranging them that I think leaves room for improvement.

 

The Raider 18 is even worse with regard to m2 slots as one of them is not occupied which I really dislike.

 

Two questions:

1. Is the material of the palm rest identical between the Raider 18 and the X18 or is it correct that the Creator has a more high quality magnesium/aluminium alloy palm rest?

2. Is there an entry level model with a smaller GPU and a QHD screen?

[song_1118]

1 hour ago, 1610ftw said:

Two questions:

1. Is the material of the palm rest identical between the Raider 18 and the X18 or is it correct that the Creator has a more high quality magnesium/aluminium alloy palm rest?

2. Is there an entry level model with a smaller GPU and a QHD screen?

1. The palm rest material of Raider 18 and X18 is the same, and even on the front edge of the X18 body base, there is still a translucent area, which was originally used to place RGB-LED.
In China, some users have DIYed Raider 18 into Titan 18 palm rest (including RGB touchpad) and keyboard, and also added the third M. SSD slot.

2. X18, you can choose RTX 3500 Ada-12GB, or QHD+ (2560 x 1600) @ 240Hz.

[1610ftw]

1 hour ago, song_1118 said:

1. The palm rest material of Raider 18 and X18 is the same, and even on the front edge of the X18 body base, there is still a translucent area, which was originally used to place RGB-LED.
In China, some users have DIYed Raider 18 into Titan 18 palm rest (including RGB touchpad) and keyboard, and also added the third M. SSD slot.

2. X18, you can choose RTX 3500 Ada-12GB, or QHD+ (2560 x 1600) @ 240Hz.

 

Thanks, very interesting! I am currently looking for somebody who can solder that third SSD slot to the Raider but I have yet got to source the part. Would you have the part number or a source for that? From what I recall it may be either gen 4 or gen 5 and I would not want to get the wrong part.

 

I had a feeling that there would not be a different palm rest and my LED is there but deactivated but I have an RGB keyboard which I prefer to the single color keyboard in the Creator - there was no reason not to have that after the previous two models had proper RGB.

 

It is interesting that some people want the Titan palm rest - i actually disliked it and just found the Raider palm rest a bit less solid than I would have liked but it adds a finger print sensor that I use regularly. So I made the right choice with the Raider, just need to get the vapor chamber in there. I also prefer the red stripes of the Raider even though I would have liked it even more if it would have been up to the user to use or not use colored stripes, like with a Noctua fan and their colored rubber caps. 

 

One more question though:

 

Is the lid of the X18 metal and the MSI dragon without illumination? I think that looks more classy than the solution for the Raider / Titan which is a cheap looking translucent plastic badge that scratches easily but them the rest of the lid is black which is my favorite color in a laptop design.

 

[song_1118]

8 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

One more question though:

 

Is the lid of the X18 metal and the MSI dragon without illumination? I think that looks more classy than the solution for the Raider / Titan which is a cheap looking translucent plastic badge that scratches easily but them the rest of the lid is black which is my favorite color in a laptop design.

 

To restore the third M.2 SSD slot for Raider 18 and X18, not only do we need to solder the M.2 slot, but we also need to solder a few small electronic components around it;
The M.2-slot component is easy to purchase, but I need to search for information about the several electronic components used around it;
In China, there are private services available online - service providers replicate and fully restore the third M.2 slot, which costs about 400 yuan (approximately $55).

The service provider even provides a complete set of services for changing Raider 18 to Titan 18, which requires replacing the entire C-side (including the palm rest, keyboard, and related body frame), cooling system BIOS/EC。

 

Titan 18, Raider 18, and X18, only the M.2 2280 slot near the GPU supports PCIe 5.0, while others support PCIe 4.0;
The MSI dragon logo of X18 does not glow at all, and there are no RGB-LEDs in other areas.

[1610ftw]

Looks like I am in the wrong country for that kind of operation, probably best to leave the third M.2 slot alone in that case.

 

Rebuilding the Raider and turning it into a Titan is pretty crazy, must be a lot easier to source the needed parts in China!

 

Interesting how MSI has a much bigger differentiation again between the Titan and its workstation version, biggest since the GT75/WT75 chassis.

 

[song_1118]

yes.
I really like MSI WT75, I have been using it for over 4 years.
I particularly like the WT75's support for three M.2 and two 2.5-inch SATA hard drives, and I have a high demand for the number of hard drives in my laptop.
Moreover, the CPU and GPU of WT75 are all modular and replaceable. I have upgraded the CPU of W75 to the highest Xeon E-2288G and GPU to RTX 5000, and will arrange to upgrade to RTX 4090 (150W) in the future. WT75 can continue to work for me for 5 years.
 

6 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

Looks like I am in the wrong country for that kind of operation, probably best to leave the third M.2 slot alone in that case.

 

Rebuilding the Raider and turning it into a Titan is pretty crazy, must be a lot easier to source the needed parts in China!

 

Interesting how MSI has a much bigger differentiation again between the Titan and its workstation version, biggest since the GT75/WT75 chassis.

 

 

[1610ftw]

4 hours ago, song_1118 said:

yes.
I really like MSI WT75, I have been using it for over 4 years.
I particularly like the WT75's support for three M.2 and two 2.5-inch SATA hard drives, and I have a high demand for the number of hard drives in my laptop.
Moreover, the CPU and GPU of WT75 are all modular and replaceable. I have upgraded the CPU of W75 to the highest Xeon E-2288G and GPU to RTX 5000, and will arrange to upgrade to RTX 4090 (150W) in the future. WT75 can continue to work for me for 5 years.
 

 

 

I have mine for about two years now it was never sold here but I got a Spanish unit. I also have 5 drives in it and a 9900K although it is limited to I think 4.6 GHz all core, still very fast. I do not really have a need for powerful graphics but the RTX5000 is a nice upgrade for sure - is that one of the cards that were used in the Zbook 17 G5 and G6?

 

My biggest complaint about it is that it has the typical riveted keyboard that is not accessible from the palm rest side - hopefully they will stop that nonsense one of these days!