First laptop, please help me decide!?

[mattfish]

Hey,
This would be my first proper laptop purchase. I'm looking into buying one for gaming + a bit of music production and general whatnot. I have been looking at these two:
(I am in Australia)
http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/340-gt660-003us.html
or
http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/292-asus-g73jh-rbbx05.html
http://www.p4laptops.com.au/order-g73a2.htm
(last two are same model)

don't really want to blow the budget over 2500, but would be open to any other suggestions. Possibly it might be worth shipping from the US, as this appears to be cheaper, but I'm not sure what dramas might be involved there??

if you have a moment please let me know what you think.

 

[hopkiller]

I do not know much about the first one, but I can tell you the Asus G73JH is a great laptop because I own one myself. It is a fast and responsive computer, and there are some nice tools that Asus includes on the laptop.

One of my major complaints, and it really is not that big is some of the extra programs I have no use for. It doesn't cause any performance drop, it just make the back up process long, it took me 5 discs and a couple of hours.

The laptop handles games like a champion too, been able to play most games on high, but some games you might need to turn them down a bit, but handles all my games great.

Other then that it is a great laptop, and that is my opinion on it, maybe someone else here can give theirs on the other one.

 

[mattfish]

kk thanks a lot. I still can't really decide, and I've now been looking at some others as well, but thanks for that. the G73JH definetly has good enough specs for what I need, im just trying to find the best deal. plus I think it's pretty rough on the eye haha, which isn't a big deal-breaker, but I would certainly prefer a lappy that is nicer to look at. but we'll see how we go.

The msi has a resolution of only 1366x768, which seems pretty weak compared to others of it's size? it does look a bit nicer though!

I also had a look at an Alienware M15x for just under 2500 with similar specs to the above, but I've read a lot that says they're terrible and a lot that says they're good?? so I don't know, possibly you've had some experience with them?

I guess it's a bit of a gamble getting anything, as there are opinions and whatnot flying around everywhere about what's good or not so much, but anyways. your info & experience is much appreciated!

Thanks a lot.