Gaming laptop

[SwordsMaster]

Well, TA, It's good to have an opinion, but my life circumstances are such that I need to travel a lot (real travel, with more time in airports than i care to remember), and I like playing videogames. So carrying around a 19' monster is not an option. While I agree gaming laptops are not the most efficient way to spending money, and I definitely do not need the boy-racer bells and whistles the likes of Alienware provide, unless someone can pack a GPU into an ipad and make ipad versions of TW and Max Payne, I dont have much choice.

More constructevely, I'm stuck between these:

1 MSI GT60 0NE-220US Gaming Laptops - $2,093.00
15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) LED Matte Widescreen LCD
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 256bit w/4.0GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3~3.3GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound applied to CPU + GPU
16GB (4x4GB) DDR3/1866 Dual Channel Memory - CL10
750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
2nd HDD - None
RAID 0 Enabled
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive
Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader: SD/SDHC/SDXC/XD/MSPRO/MS/MM
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 Wireless Card + Bluetooth 4.0 (Single Band)
Smart Li-ion Battery 9-Cell

And

Display	15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080) [$30.00]
Video & Graphics Card	AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory [$200.00]
CPU Processor	3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.60GHz) [$160.00]
Thermal Compound	IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU [$35.00]
Operating System	Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory	16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 4 X 4GB
Primary Hard Disk Drive	500GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 4GB SSD
mSATA SSD Drive — For Intel Smart Response Technology	None
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case	8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card	Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Primary Battery	Smart Li-ION Battery Pack

The MSI is a tiny bit higher spec than the Sager, but works out about 150USD pricier including shipping. Is it worth it for 250Gb of HD and the 680M instead of the AMD Radeon HD 7970M?
Also, is there a point to RAid?

[Lemur]

The second laptop looks more interesting to me. I've read reviews and benchmarks of those hybrid hard drives, and they're supposed to be wonderful. (Read through some of the user reviews here.)

Sager built their entire rep on gaming laptops, so if forced to choose between them and a traditional manufacturer, I'd choose Sager, just because they will know my issues and concerns, and build/fix accordingly. Gamers know gamers. I would not spend a whole lot extra to get one of their machines, but in a close call? No question.

And of course Tellos has a point, gaming laptops are not optimal ... but sometimes they are necessary.

[SwordsMaster]

The second laptop looks more interesting to me. I've read reviews and benchmarks of those hybrid hard drives, and they're supposed to be wonderful. (Read through some of the user reviews here.)

Sager built their entire rep on gaming laptops, so if forced to choose between them and a traditional manufacturer, I'd choose Sager, just because they will know my issues and concerns, and build/fix accordingly. Gamers know gamers. I would not spend a whole lot extra to get one of their machines, but in a close call? No question.

And of course Tellos has a point, gaming laptops are not optimal ... but sometimes they are necessary.

What's funny about Sager is that, they charge double than anyone else to have the damn thing shipped to Europe! MSI charges 160$, and Sager 310! And in all likelihood they'll go on the same aeroplane...

[Beskar]

You could just buy it from a European reseller.

More information at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sage...fo.html#europe

Sager laptops are re-branded Clevo models. There are numerous resellers around Europe so you might be able to find one which has the specifications you are looking for.

[Lemur]

Yup, did a tiny bit of Googling, I believe this is a similar model at a UK reseller. Helpful? Speccing it out with 16 gigs of RAM, the 2.6 ghz i7, the AMD 7970M and a wicked-cool 750 gig hybrid HD, it clocks in at £1,347.00 post-VAT, or $2,111. Does that save you money?

[SwordsMaster]

Thanks Tiaexz, having trouble loading the site...

I had looked at Clevo's site, but I must be really clumsy as I didn't find listed any european resellers... Just stuff about their manufacturing process.

It does indeed! Danke Lemur! I'll let you know how it plays! including delivery it saves about 100$ and I get 250gb extra hybrid HD. You da man.

[Lemur]

Also nice to have it from a UK reseller, especially should you need to invoke the angry gods of Warranty and RMA.

That should be a roaring beast of a gaming laptop. (I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.)

Can we get some unboxing pics?

Oh, and when I specced it, I threw in Windows 7 64 pro, since I figured you would probably want to VPN at some point in your life. That bumped the price a bit.